The conclusion considers theoretical and practical changes needed to begin to extricate liberalism and liberal democracies from their patriarchal roots, strengthen the protection of women’s rights in liberal democracies, and bolster the ability of liberal democracies to fight against right-wing religio-populism. The changes suggested are in the tradition of the radical internal critique of liberalism offered by Susan Okin, whose radical liberal, or humanist, feminism aimed to provide theoretical underpinnings for a liberalism that will focus on both the private and the public spheres, recognize the gendered power differentials, oppression, and prejudices maintained and supported by patriarchal liberalism, and take active steps to change them. Most of the discussion will refer to the theoretical and practical changes needed to protect women’s rights in liberal democracies from the adverse effects of patriarchal religion, including its nationalist and populist iterations. The last part will discuss the connection between the suggested changes and the urgently needed overall struggle of liberal democracies against right-wing populism.

This chapter argues against the common but oversimplified claim that the secularization of the world and the legal separation between religion and the state in liberal states have eliminated the negative effects patriarchal religion can have on women’s rights. The chapter suggests that there are at least five facets of the relationship between religion and the state in contemporary liberal democracies that are crucial to a proper understanding of the ways in which religion–state relations affect women’s rights: (1) institutional differentiation between religion and the state; (2) strong protection of religious liberty; (3) the involvement of religion in politics; (4) the extent of religious involvement in education and social services; and (5) the levels of religious belief of individuals in society. It analyzes each of these facets and shows how their treatment in liberal states allows patriarchal religion to perpetuate and entrench women’s inequality.

This chapter examines the theoretical roots of discrimination against women in liberal states. It starts with a general discussion of feminism and liberalism and the tensions between their main variants, with an emphasis on the public–private distinction. It then introduces a detailed feminist critique of political liberalism, pointing to its flaws, and in particular to the distinction between the public and the private and between the political and nonpolitical on which Rawls’ theory is based. The chapter claims that these flaws have allowed patriarchal religions and other illiberal ideologies to strengthen their power in liberal societies and deepen the oppression of women. This chapter also introduces the role of capitalism in the oppression of Women in western liberal states, its connection to patriarchal religion, and its dependence on the public–private distinction and its corollary distinction between love and justice. The chapter closes with a discussion of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, compares it to the Race Convention, and claims that despite its shortcomings, it is a better model for protecting women’s rights than the liberal model.

Calls to restrict women’s rights are a most effective rallying cry for right-wing populists and religious conservatives in their surprisingly successful attack on the foundations of liberal democracy. Populist leaders across the world use the aggrandizement of patriarchy and the opposition to women’s rights as the engine of a right-wing populist revolution. The success of the populist attack on women’s rights in liberal societies, together with decisions such as the American Dobbs decision, has confirmed feminist warnings regarding the flawed protection of women’s rights in liberal societies, which have hitherto been rejected by most liberals as unfounded and alarmist. The book claims that to understand the success of the religio-populist attack on women’s rights in liberal democracies, and its centrality to the success of right-wing populism, it is necessary to acknowledge and understand the patriarchal nature of liberalism and liberal societies. The introduction defines patriarchy and explains its connections to liberalism, religion, and populism, and the contemporary threat it poses to both women’s rights and liberal democracy. It then sets out the outline of the book.

Utilizing the Foucauldian concept of power, this chapter shows how the power of religion and culture has created and perpetuated the hegemony of patriarchy throughout the centuries, including in liberal states. It claims that liberal theory lacks an adequate theory of power and neglects the dynamics of power and control in the private sphere. Liberalism disregards the institutions, practices, and norms of religion and culture, as a socially and politically significant site of power. This severely curtails the ability of liberal states to ensure that the exercise of power and authority over the individual is justified and that the rights of the individual are safeguarded. After a general theoretical and historical discussion, the chapter discusses the history of the relationship between religion and the state in the USA and the critique of early American feminists on the power of patriarchal religion, and claims that despite the constitutional separation between religion and state in the USA, patriarchal religion continues to influence the law directly and indirectly and constitutes a significant force preserving the hegemony of patriarchy, as the 2022 Dobbs decision demonstrates.

This chapter argues that the flaws in liberal theory and practice that religious conservatives and right-wing populists use to attack women’s rights are also used to undermine liberal democracy. It claims that due to the embeddedness of patriarchy in liberal theory and practice, liberals have chosen to disregard the feminist critique of the liberal public–private distinction and of the refusal to intervene in the nonpolitical sphere. As a result, prejudices that liberals have allowed to flourish in the private sphere serve as the basis for a successful right-wing religio-populist attack on the liberal state itself. Using the example of the USA, the chapter discusses the capture of the American Supreme Court by the populist and religiously conservative Republican Party led by President Trump. It analyzes two major abortion decisions issued by the captured Supreme Court – Whole Women’s Health and Dobbs – and shows how these decisions thoroughly undermine the liberal rights regime, transfer the control over women’s bodies and their rights to Christian religious hands, and are part of a wholesale Christian nationalist attack on American liberal democracy.