Splitting and blaming: The psychic life of neoliberal executive women

Abstract

The aim of the article is to explore the psychic life of executive women under neoliberalism using psychosocial approaches. The article shows how, despite enduring unfair treatment and access to opportunities, many executive women remain emotionally invested in upholding the neoliberal ideal that if one perseveres, one shall be successful, regardless of gender. Drawing on psychosocial approaches, we explore how the accounts given by some executive women of repudiation, as denying gender inequality, and individualisation, as subjects completely agentic, are underpinned by the unconscious, intertwined processes of splitting and blaming. Women sometimes split off undesirable aspects of the workplace, which repudiates gender inequality, or blame other women, which individualises failure and responsibility for change. We explain that splitting and blaming enable some executive women to manage the anxiety evoked from threats to the neoliberal ideal of the workplace. This article thereby makes a contribution to existing postfeminist scholarship by integrating psychosocial approaches to the study of the psychic life of neoliberal executive women, by exploring why they appear unable to engage directly with and redress instances of gender discrimination in the workplace.

Paws for thought? Analysing how prevailing masculinities constrain career progression for UK women veterinary surgeons

“…Moreover, women are held responsible for the discriminatory practices they experience. Given that the entrepreneurial discourse is premised upon the agentic, individual actor, then the only available explanation for unfavourable individual outcomes is a deficiency of individual talent and/or effort (Baker and Kelan, 2019).…”

“…From accusations of an essentialist lack of technical competence to assumptions that their primary focus and ambitions lie in the domestic realm, women have encountered gendered barriers to career progression (Bradley, 2013). This is evident across a range of professions, including law (Bolton and Muzio, 2008), finance (Baker and Kelan, 2019), pharmacy (Gardner and Stowe, 2006), engineering (Fernando et al, 2018) and science (Bunker-Whittington, 2011). Even in those professions numerically dominated by women, to be acknowledged as a professional worker requires compliance ‘with behavioural and interactional norms that celebrate and sustain a masculine vision of what it is to be a professional’ (Bolton and Muzio, 2008: 283).…”

Gender Equality in International Business Education

“…Alternatively, they may consider gender equality as a boundary condition in work-related outcomes (Chen, 2014). However, if the learning objective shifts to increasing gender equality at work, instructors can draw from research that may help develop class activities, such as the work conducted by Baker and Kelan (2019), Bell et al (2002), or Lyness and Kropf (2005).…”

The Lost Good Self: Why the whistleblower is hated and stigmatized

“…I would argue therefore that there is an unconscious recognition in the minds of staff members that the whistleblower is giving voice to the ethical aspects of themselves, and that this triggers an unconscious recognition that the good and ethical aspects of the self of the organizational member have been lost, and are now lodged in the whistleblower. These phenomena may best be understood as involving, first, splitting (Klein, 1975;Fotaki, 2006;Fotaki & Hyde, 2015;Baker & Kelan, 2019), the primitive mechanism that facilitates one to radically split good from bad, resulting in them appearing entirely separate and exaggerated; and, second, projective identification (Gilmore & Krantz, 1985;Horwitz, 1985;Klein, 1975;Petriglieri & Stein, 2012;Vince & Mazen, 2014) whereby certain of these aspects are unconsciously projected into others. Splitting and projective identification are engaged in by individuals in order 'to protect themselves from consciously experiencing unbearable feelings' (Petriglieri & Stein, 2012, p. 1222, and thus function as mechanisms of defence (Braddock, 2011, p. 645;Vince & Mazen, 2014, p. 191) because they are employed for the purposes of protecting the self from such painful and difficult feelings.…”