It’s said that a nationalist organization cannot be sustained by political conviction alone. This is true for all political organizations, but especially for a nationalist organization which is dissenting from the status quo.
For a nationalist organization to succeed, it requires institutions, education, cultural continuity, organizational discipline, and a community of people willing to devote their time and abilities to a common mission.
Men and women alike can contribute to these efforts, although the particular responsibilities assigned to each will depend on the organization’s principles and understanding of national life.
So, therefore, I ask the question if women have a place in a nationalist movement, then what is their place and how can their contributions best serve the national community?
Preserving the National Culture
It is true that a nation is more than just some geographical territory or a political administration. A nation, or a neam, is the people, kindred, lineage, or historical community, who possess a shared language, customs, traditions, collective memories, and institutions inherited from previous generations.
In theological terms, the neam is inseparable from Christ, because we know that it is Christ who has given us our ultimate orientation, moral purpose, and understanding of true history.
As St. Nikolaj Velimirović said:
“We are the children of God, and people of the Aryan race, to which fate has assigned the honorable role of being the principle bearer of Christianity in the world.”
And these things do not preserve themselves. They must be taught, practiced, and transmitted to the people, while also repeating our duty to our neam through successive generations.
In this duty, women play an important role through the preservation of family traditions, the education of children, the maintenance of cultural practices, and participation in institutions dedicated to national history and heritage. They can help ensure the next generation understands not only the history of its homeland, but also the cultural inheritance that connects them to those who came before, as well as their obligation to carry out their duties.
The responsibility should not be understood as belonging exclusively to women. Men also bear responsibility for cultural transmission. Nevertheless, where an organization places particular emphasis on family life and intergenerational continuity, it has reason to recognize the significant of women’s contributions in these areas.
It should be said, that cultural preservation must extend far beyond the household. Women can participate in historical societies, educational associations, publishing projects, language programs, and cultural organizations. And by encouraging women to do such work, national traditions can be preserved as living practices rather than antiquated symbols of the past.
Organization and Service
Political movements frequently devote a considerable attention to their public statements, ideological debates, and prominent personalities—often times cultivating a cult of personality or perceived authority while neglecting the fact that their continued existence often depends on far less visible and glorious work:
Membership records must be maintained
Correspondence must be answered
Events must be organized
Publications must be prepared and distributed
Members experiencing hardship may need assistance
& new participants must be introduced to the movement’s principles.
I suggest that women take up these responsibilities so that they may develop the necessary skills, and assume positions of appropriate organizational authority.
I should also say that I don’t believe that it is effective to have women in places of authority over men, unless there is a man of higher authority who permits it. The Bible states in 1 Timothy 2:11-12;
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
But it was Acts 18:24–26 that Priscilla and her husband, Aquila, instructed Apollos on how to be a better Christian teacher:
“They took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”
Those previously mentioned responsibilities should not be dismissed as a secondary simply because it attracts less public attention than speeches or political campaigns. An organization that cannot administer its affairs reliably will struggle to accomplish its objectives, regardless of the strength of its rhetoric.
However, I am also not saying that administrative or charitable responsibilities need to become exclusively female occupations. What I am saying is that their distribution should reflect the organization’s needs, the ability of its members, and the principles it wishes to uphold. And so, a serious organization should cultivate competence wherever it finds it.
Education and Intellectual Life
Every successful nationalist organization must be able to answer questions about its history, principles, and intended future. It must explain what it seeks to preserve, what it hopes to reform, and what responsibilities it believes its members owe to their neam.
Here is where I have found women to be exemplary in contribution.
Women often times make the best researchers and note takers. So, they can be effectively used for researching national history, writing essays, editing publications, organizing lectures, maintaining archives, and participating in discussions of political philosophy. They can also examine the organization’s assumptions, identify weaknesses in its arguments, and help develop a more coherent understand of its objectives.
Education is especially important when a movement hopes to endure beyond the lifetime of its founders. Personal loyalty may bring people into an organization, but education helps them understand its principles and judge conduct against them.
An organization should expect women to transmit its ideas to future generations and also give them the opportunity to study those ideas seriously. It should not expect them to defend a traditions they have never been permitted to understand.
Remember, intellectual responsibility requires both instruction and independent judgement. By cultivating the mind to make important judgements independent of others, you create a greater nationalist.
Family, Demography, and Generational Continuity
A nationalist organization must regard the family as the fundamental social institution, because family life will naturally occupy an important place in their understanding of national continuity.
Families are responsible for raising children, establishing habits of mutual responsibility, transmitting cultural practices, and connecting successive generations. While many would argue for the nuclear family, what I have found is that it is isolating to the clan—creating indifference and splitting up the extended family—, so I advocate and believe that our most fundamental social institution must be multigenerational.
Nuclear Family
The nuclear family consists of two parents and their children living in a single household. It is a two-generation unit focused on the parent-child bond. In nuclear families, financial and childcare duties are concentrated within the small unit, often requiring outside services, such as schooling, child rearing, etc. Nuclear families offer greater privacy, autonomy, and mobility, making them common in Western Civilization.
Extended Family
The extended family is a multi-generational group that may span three or more generations. Extended families pool resources, allowing for shared labor, collective financial support, and built-in caregiving networks. Extended families also provide stronger community support, security, and cultural continuity, but involve less privacy and typically involve more complex interpersonal dynamics. They also may or may not live in the same household.
Women make important contributions in this sphere, just as men do. Parenthood, however, should not be treated as the only measure of a woman’s worth or commitment to her nation. Women who are widows or cannot have children may contribute through education, scholarship, public service, charitable work, and organizational participation.
By rhetoric alone, demographic security is not ensured. However, it depends on practical circumstances, including economic security, housing, access to education, and the ability of parents to provide for their children.
An organization looking to encourage family formation should consider whether its policies and institutions actually support family life. Celebrating the family while ignoring the material difficulties faced by families is unlikely to produce the desired result. So, the objective should be to strengthen the conditions under which families and communities can flourish.
Leadership and Responsibility
I have touched on this topic a bit earlier in the article, however, I thought it would be good to expand on what I had said. Easily one of the most important questions is what should be the extent of a woman’s participation in leadership.
Men and women have complementary, but distinct, social roles. While women can have substantial opportunities to lead certain institutions and undertake public responsibilities, it is not in an organization’s interests to adopt a sense of egalitarianism.
A woman who demonstrates exceptional ability in research, administration, public speaking, or organizational participation should not have those abilities ignored without a clear explanation grounded in principle. Equally, an organization that encourages women to assume demanding public responsibilities should consider how those responsibilities might affect family life and other obligations.
Leadership entails not just duties, but certain privileges as well. Those entrusted with authority should be judged by their competence, integrity, discipline, and service to the organization.
Beyond Symbolism
What I have noticed among many nationalist organizations is the tendency to treat certain groups primarily as symbols. Women may be praised as embodiments of national tradition or motherhood, but I rarely see them given meaningful opportunities to participate in the institutions supposedly built to preserve those things. Look symbolic recognition certainly has its place, but it cannot substitute for substantive responsibility.
If women are to be expected to contribute, than their responsibilities should be clearly defined with appropriate training and a genuine opportunity to develop their abilities. Their contributions should be evaluated honestly, and their work should be recognized fairly.
The standard that you apply to women, should be applied to men. An organization cannot build a culture of service if it reserves recognition for prominent personalities while overlooking the people who perform its essential work. You must learn to distinguish between appearance and achievement.
A Common National Purpose
Arguably my strongest argument for women’s participation in a nationalist organization is not that every women must perform in a predetermined function, but that because there are numerous responsibilities for the preservation and development of the national community, many of them will undoubtedly require the participation of the entire community.
Cultural institutions need teachers and researchers, while organizations need administrators and organizers. Families need responsible parents, while publications need writers and editors. Charitable projects need volunteers and capable leadership, while political institutions need people willing to accept responsibility for their decisions.
And women can contribute to all of these endeavors, as long as they have male supervision to ensure that they maintain the organization’s principles.
In my opinion, national service is not to be reduced to a single occupation, nor should commitment be measured solely by public visibility. A person who quietly preserves an archive, educates children, organizes a local association, or assists a family in hardship may contribute to the continuity of a national community as meaningfully as someone who addresses a public gathering.
The task at hand is to connect individual abilities with collective responsibilities. Therefore a nationalist organization that takes its future seriously must ask not merely how many people it can recruit, but what kind of community it intends to build, what institutions that community requires, and how its members can sustain those institutions over time.
I believe that women have a vital role in answering those questions, because the nature of that role should be determined through a serious consideration of cultural inheritance, family life, organizational needs, individual ability, and the organization’s stated principles.
Ultimately, a national organization is measured not only by the strength of its declarations, but by the quality of the community it cultivates. Its lasting achievement will depend on whether it can educate successive generations, maintain functioning institutions, encourage responsibility, and translate its convictions into enduring work. And it is these tasks that require dedication, competence, and service from all of the community.