Spaces of Power: Feminism, Neoliberalism and Gendered Labor

Abstract

This paper offers an intervention into current debates about the demise of feminist politics in neoliberal times. It draws on an empirical study of women working the spaces of power over the last 50 years to trace different mappings of the 'landscapes of antagonism' in which feminism and neoliberalism are entangled. The paper challenges singular conceptions of both feminism and neoliberalism, and seeks to offer a political-cultural analysis that does not erase the possibility of politics.

Gendered Mobilizations against Austerity in Ireland

“…Other analyses support a less pessimistic account, arguing for a more nuanced notion of resistance and radicalism that emerges from shared projects generated through encounters between feminist and other activist claims (Eschle and Maiguascha, ; Evans and Chamberlain, ). Although acknowledging the constraints that exist when feminist justice claims are advanced in populist political and movement contexts (Emejulu, ), we argue in agreement with Newman () for exploring the situated agency of women as evidence of how women work the contradictions of neoliberalism in real life, in their work and in activism. Gains, even if temporary or partial, must be acknowledged.…”

“…To assess how gendered mobilizations have responded to austerity in the Irish context we draw upon work that has interrogated the relationship between neoliberalism, gender inequality and feminist mobilization (Fraser, ; McRobbie, ; Newman, ). This work generated important insights into the constraints but also the opportunities that shape feminist efforts to challenge neoliberalism (Eschle and Maiguashca, ; Newman, ; Walby, ). Longer‐term trends of managerialism have generated depoliticized contexts where new public‐management logics pull gender‐equality advocates into service‐level agreements that act to narrow and moderate advocacy efforts.…”

Leading the debate for the business case for gender equality, perilous for whom?

“…Newman (, p. 210) reminds us how while women's activism helped neoliberalism to adapt and flex, and work the spaces of power, it made new demands on capitalism (including those of equality, rights, welfare benefits and provision for ‘care’). Recent research on the Irish case suggests the existence of effective situated feminist and gendered resistance to neoliberal austerity that produced successful resistance to austerity (Cullen & Murphy, ).…”

Beyond ‘the paradox of our own complicity’: the place of activism and identity in ‘voluntary sector’ stories from Manchester and Auckland

“…As in Newman's (2013) examination of women's transference of activist commitments into their working lives, we suggest that the adoption of (auto)biographical approaches helps to reveal how individual and organisational life is closely entwined. This approach affords opportunities to envision alternative theorisations of the third sector that, in turn, support alternative social policy solutions that are not shackled to myopic sectoral thinking.…”

“…Social policy and third sector scholars have increasingly embraced this 'biographical (re)turn' to craft rich and nuanced accounts that emphasise the lived experience of members of voluntary organisations and are alert to the role of identity and emotion in shaping organisational space at a range of scales (Conradson, 2003;Milligan, 2005;Newman, 2013;Somers, 1994). In particular, critical approaches drawing on written and orally recounted (auto)biography that highlight the interplay between organisational and personal life have become increasingly popular and sophisticated (e.g.…”