Not just one woman at a time: Re-radicalizing a feminist project at work in a postfeminist era

Abstract

Feminism is back, but is it? What does the contemporary popularity of feminism mean for the feminist subject and the feminist project in western organizations? This is the question that lies at the heart of this article. We observe how postfeminism – as a key source for feminism’s contemporary attractiveness – individualizes the feminist subject as empowered, choosing and self-transforming. However, feelings of affective incongruity between what is promised and what is delivered in postfeminist times provide an entry point for a re-radicalization of the feminist project. To examine how the disappointed postfeminist subject can challenge organizations, we return to the feminist concepts of collectivity and patriarchy. We update the notion of collectivity through fusion with network sociality, breaking with a traditional understanding of stable collaboration, and emphasizing diverse experiences and transient, intense collective encounters. Returning to patriarchy, we present it as ‘stunningly adaptable’ and the unsanitized interpretation of the struggle for equality. It is the context for the disappointment that can spark temporary intense collective action for intersectional equality. Finally, we identify the contours of a research agenda to explore how to radicalize the feminist subject to take forward a feminist project of intersectional equality.