Women are increasingly ditching their backstage role in right-wing extremist movements. The days surrounding the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol have been rife with analyses about ongoing investigations and lawsuits, strategies to combat domestic extremism in the military and signs of broader threats to democracy amid rising support for political violence. One issue that keeps getting lost in the shuffle is the unusual role that women played in the insurrection — and continue to play in the rise of extremism itself. (…) Between 1948 and 2018, just 6 percent of violent and nonviolent far-right extremists in the U.S. were women. But that percentage more than doubled on Jan. 6: To date, women reflect 13 percent of the federal arrests. At the Capitol that day, women smashed pipes through windows and posted videos from inside the building saying they were searching for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to “to shoot her in the friggin’ brain.”
Women were likely more engaged on Jan. 6 due to the highly spontaneous nature of the violence and because of the prominent effect of QAnon, which has radicalized millions of women to believe in a network of conspiracy theories. Like most of the men charged, most women who have been arrested appear to have no formal ties to extremist groups. By all accounts, these women were mobilized over a relatively short period of time through mass disinformation about the U.S. presidential election and traveled to Washington from ordinary lives, leaving jobs as health professionals, a florist, a realtor, a school therapist and an elementary school teacher. But not all of the women arrested were spontaneously mobilized rioters. At least a handful of the women were highly skilled, tactically trained military veterans or members of more organized and militant groups that took advantage of the chaos to enact strategic attack plans. That includes Army veteran, paramilitary leader and Oath Keepers member Jessica Watkins, who was arrested on several federal charges related to the Jan. 6 attack — including conspiracy and destruction of government property. Prosecutors described Watkins as a “leader” in the Oath Keepers, while a federal judge noted she is “not just a foot soldier.”
via msnbc: Women among the Jan. 6 attackers are the new normal of right-wing extremism