Living Politically: An Irigarayan Notion of Agency as a Way of Life

Abstract

This paper formulates Luce Irigaray's notion of agency as a political way of life. I argue that agency, within an Irigarayan framework, is both the outcome and the condition of a political life, aimed at creating political transformations. As Irigaray hardly addresses the topic of agency per se, I suggest understanding Irigaray's textual style as implying specific “technologies of self” in the Foucauldian sense, that is, as self‐applied social practices that reshape social reality, one's relations to oneself, and enhance one's freedom and pleasures in these relations. This interpretation aims to extract concrete transformative practices, which, by shaping one's sense of self in relation to others, create oneself as a free and active subject.

Feminist Ethics and Women Leaders: From Difference to Intercorporeality

“…This radical approach addresses leadership ethics at the site of intercorporeality and relationality. Feminist leadership ethics lies in a radical vision for leadership which liberates the feminine and women's subjectivity from the masculine order and offers practical implications for changing women's working lives through ethical openness and fundamental political transformation (Rozmarin 2013). The notion of care in leadership ethics is often promoted as 'humanising' the workplace through practices of empathy, relatedness and cooperation primarily associated with the feminine (Edlund 1992) and is understood in terms of what is 'effective' for organisations.…”

“…Mimesis creates unique positions for women which can be applied to leadership. In seeking such an application we gain inspiration from the three strategies of mimesis developed by Rozmarin (2013): the speaking Other, parody and body language that prevent women repeating oppressive gender norms.…”

“…Subjectivities for women that arise elsewhere than from their negation become possible as alternatives to dominant masculine leadership and multiple, agentic feminine subjectivities surface. As Rozmarin (2013) explains, 'the position of the speaking Other reflects woman's status as object, a silent mirror reflecting the male subject' (p. 472). This 'silent mirror can become self-reflective and self-assertive' (ibid, p. 472) and we suggest enables the deconstruction of feminine leadership as it is developed from the male-centred foundation upon which leadership rests.…”

“…For Jacinda Ardern, resisting the pressure to align with dominant leadership norms and feminine leadership expectations that are assigned to her is central. 'New sites of clash' (Rozmarin 2013) that extend further than what is considered 'natural or obvious' involve resisting ideal images of femininity/feminine leadership (cf. Helgesen 1995).…”

“…We draw on the work of Luce Irigaray's writing, together with Miri Rozmarin's (2013) development of Irigaray's notion of agency, to advance a practical, political approach to initiate alternatives for women leaders that traverse the classic gender bind that limits the feminine to being the other of the masculine (Fletcher 2004). Further, we consider Rozmarin's (2013) strategies of mimesis, the speaking Other, parody and body language as a way of breaking the bind of how the feminine is constructed. Finally, we draw together the implications of our discussion for developing feminist leadership ethics based on relationality and intercorporeality.…”