IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v29y2022i6p1815-1830.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Neoliberal feminism in old age: Femininity, work, and retirement in the aftermath of the Great Recession

Author

Listed:
  • Ella Fegitz

Abstract

This article employs a Foucauldian discourse analysis of UK social policy on work and retirement from the austerity measures of 2010 to 2019, to explore the emergence of older femininity as a key site to articulate and justify a neoliberal governmentality in old age, in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Feminist Cultural Studies' scholarship has remarked and critiqued the centrality of work in contemporary cultural discourses of female emancipation and empowerment, highlighting how the celebration of female workplace success has been employed to sustain the social, cultural, and economic project of neoliberalism. However, this academic field has focused predominantly on young women and women up to childbearing age, failing to account for the way older femininity is being increasingly included in neoliberal discourses through the encouragement to work in old age. Through the dialogic relationship between ‘entrepreneurialism’ and―what I call―‘gendered anti‐welfarism’ in old age, the UK social policy draws on a feminist vocabulary to offer ‘the older entrepreneurial woman’ as its ideal subject, characterized by capacity and willingness to work, personal and job‐market flexibility, responsibilization and individualization of risk, and―but only for the more privileged few―choice. Ultimately, the article illustrates how contemporary cultural discourses that place work as central to female empowerment and emancipation are not limited to younger women, but extend to older femininity through the normalization of the figure of the older entrepreneurial woman, with the articulation of a ‘neoliberal feminism in old age’.

Suggested Citation

  • Ella Fegitz, 2022. "Neoliberal feminism in old age: Femininity, work, and retirement in the aftermath of the Great Recession," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 1815-1830, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:29:y:2022:i:6:p:1815-1830
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12879
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12879
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12879?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shelley Budgeon, 2019. "The resonance of moderate feminism and the gendered relations of austerity," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1138-1155, August.
    2. Sibylle Heilbrunn & Rosa Lisa Iannone, 2019. "Neoliberalist Undercurrents in Entrepreneurship Policy," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 5(2), pages 149-162, July.
    3. Carol Bacchi, 2016. "Problematizations in Health Policy," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(2), pages 21582440166, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tony Sandset & Eivind Engebretsen, 2022. "Sustainable Healthcare Education as a Practice of Governmentality?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-15, November.
    2. Yannai Kranzler & Yael Parag & Nadav Davidovitch, 2019. "Public Health from the Middle-Out: A New Analytical Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Amy Weimann & Maylene Shung-King & Nicole McCreedy & Lambed Tatah & Clarisse Mapa-Tassou & Trish Muzenda & Ishtar Govia & Vincent Were & Tolu Oni, 2021. "Intersectoral Action for Addressing NCDs through the Food Environment: An Analysis of NCD Framing in Global Policies and Its Relevance for the African Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Jawad, Rana, 2019. "A new era for social protection analysis in LMICs? A critical social policy perspective from the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Georgia‐Zozeta Miliopoulou & Ilias Kapareliotis, 2021. "The toll of success: Female leaders in the “women‐friendly” Greek advertising agencies," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1741-1765, September.
    6. Whitelaw, Sandy & Bell, Anthony & Clark, David, 2022. "The expression of ‘policy’ in palliative care: A critical review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(9), pages 889-898.
    7. Yun Hee Cho & Joo-Heon Lee, 2020. "A Study on the Effects of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Learning Orientation on Financial Performance: Focusing on Mediating Effects of Market Orientation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-19, June.
    8. Sibylle Heilbrunn & Rosa Lisa Iannone, 2020. "From Center to Periphery and Back Again: A Systematic Literature Review of Refugee Entrepreneurship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-39, September.
    9. Nerilee Ceatha & Paula Mayock & Jim Campbell & Chris Noone & Kath Browne, 2019. "The Power of Recognition: A Qualitative Study of Social Connectedness and Wellbeing through LGBT Sporting, Creative and Social Groups in Ireland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-18, September.
    10. Meral Ugur‐Cinar & Kursat Cinar & Emine Onculer‐Yayalar & Selin Akyuz, 2024. "The political economy of women's cooperatives in Turkey: A social reproduction perspective," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1268-1289, July.
    11. Barbara L. Marshall & Nicole K. Dalmer & Stephen Katz & Eugene Loos & Daniel López Gómez & Alexander Peine, 2022. "Digitization of Aging-in-Place: An International Comparison of the Value-Framing of New Technologies," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:29:y:2022:i:6:p:1815-1830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.