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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rottenberg, Catherine, author.
Title: The rise of neoliberal feminism / Catherine Rottenberg. Description: New York : Oxford University Press, [2018] | Series: Heretical thought | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018005396 (print) | LCCN 2018012225 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190901233 (Updf) | ISBN 9780190901240 (Epub) | ISBN 9780190901226 (hardcover : alk. paper)
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018005396
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
To
Ari and Avivi, my wilde khayes
FOREWORD
In recent years, feminism has seen a resurgence in the popular media, with celebrities proudly declaring themselves feminists and bestselling books teaching women how to shatter the glass ceiling without neglecting their families. In this book, however, Catherine Rottenberg shows us how such “neoliberal feminism” forsakes the vitally important goals of emancipation and social justice, substitutes positive affect for genuine change, and adopts the theory and often the very language of neoliberalism—which, in turn, needs feminism in order to resolve its own internal contradictions. With passion and rigor, Rottenberg reveals that neoliberal feminism is not a philosophy but rather a self-help program for upper-middle-class women, one that leaves behind those who do not fit the template of a privileged professional. She begins by mercilessly dismantling neoliberal feminism’s preoccupation with maintaining “balance” between family and career. Rottenberg shows how this focus on the self dovetails with neoliberal rationality, particularly in its emphasis on the individual’s “cost-benefit calculus” of
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personal fulfillment (which relies on low-paid, outsourced care work to make the numbers come out right). Instead of benefiting all women, neoliberal feminism divides women into aspirational and non-aspirational cohorts, with different roles and expectations for the two groups.
Rottenberg carries this provocative analysis further with her counterintuitive exposure of the way neoliberalism needs feminism. In neoliberal rationalism, people are “human capital” consisting of ungendered productive units—yet for the neoliberal system to be sustainable, women must also play a reproductive role by creating future workers. To resolve this contradiction, she argues, neoliberalism embraces “a new ‘technology of the self’ structured through ‘futurity,’ ” which encourages women to postpone maternity (notably by freezing eggs) until a time when it will interfere less with their productive capacity. The popularity of neoliberalfeminist books by women from across the political spectrum shows how widespread approval of this brand of feminism is. In detailing the deficiencies of neoliberal feminism, and the fissures within the feminist movement that its rise has accentuated, Rottenberg eschews any calls for unification based on compromise, accommodation, or commonly agreed-upon goals. Instead, she advocates “alternative feminist visions [that] not only challenge but also constitute a profound threat to our contemporary neoliberal order. Indeed, given our grim and frightening reality, it is precisely such a threatening feminism that we need to cultivate, encourage, and ceaselessly espouse.” She concludes by invoking Judith Butler’s concept of “precarity” as a unifying factor—not only for women, but for all who are marginalized or who struggle for social justice. With the times ripe for converting neoliberal feminism into a more vigorous and inclusive ideology,
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women can turn around the unfortunate “mutual entanglement of neoliberalism with feminism”—and subvert neoliberalism by killing it from within.
Like all works that challenge convenient untruths, this book will disturb some readers and ruffle some feathers. By disputing a widespread notion of what feminism is; by elucidating the insidious ubiquity of neoliberal thought; by demanding that we pay attention to the oppressed and marginalized; and by paradoxically finding hope in the current dark times, Catherine Rottenberg gives us the hard truth, takes us to the edge of a cliff, and then maps the way back. For all these reasons, her book makes an outstanding addition to the Heretical Thought series.
Professor Ruth O’Brien, The Graduate Center, CUNY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LIKE MOST RESEARCH, THIS PROJECT has multiple roots and many people have cultivated its growth over the years. The first seeds were sown when I was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where I met Joan Scott and Sara Farris and where we began a three-way conversation about feminism. I am intensely grateful to Joan— she is a fiercely unique feminist force, and she continues to inspire me at every single turn. Sara has been a kindred spirit in this long journey. Her support, intellectual perspicacity, and friendship have been a mainstay during these past years. She has read and commented on almost every line in this book. Not only has her feedback been invaluable but her economic critique has changed the way that I see and understand the world.
That year at the Institute for Advanced Study was a truly formative one—in large part because of the wonderful new friendships forged. One new and precious relationship is with David Eng, to whom I am grateful for all of his unwavering support, his amazing work, and his crucial feedback,
as well as the many conversations that helped me think through my arguments. Many thanks also go to Moon-Kie Jung for his incisive comments as well as his honesty and dry humor. Peter Thomas, Nicola Perugini, Farah Salah, and Teemu Ruskola have also become dear friends and important interlocutors in my life. Thank you all. A special thank you goes to Zia Mann, who was instrumental in igniting my desire to research the notion of work-family balance, as well as to Lila Berman, who kept sending me crucial material. Lila also offered me extremely insightful comments, and I am grateful to her in more ways than one.
The Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev has been my bedrock for almost a decade. I have been profoundly privileged to have such fantastic colleagues. I would like to thank, in particular, Barbara Hochman from whom I have learned so much. I am absolutely indebted to her for her steadfast and gentle guidance. To Yael Ben-Zvi, I would like to extend my admiration and gratitude, especially for her razor-sharp mind and passionate commitment to justice. Eitan Bar-Yosef is not only a bundle of energy that illuminates every space he enters, but I have never met someone who can do so much at one time while simultaneously providing ongoing support and encouragement. I could never have made it this far without these beloved colleagues. My debts at BenGurion University, however, are many. The Gender Studies Program has also been my second home for many years, and I would like to thank Amalia Ziv for putting up with my congenital impatience. Although I may not express it nearly enough, I am very grateful to you, Amalia. My students at Ben-Gurion, and particularly students in the Introduction to Feminist Theory course, have taught me so much about
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contemporary feminism, and I owe them an enormous debt of gratitude as well.
A huge and special thank you needs to go to two other colleagues who have been absolutely central to my intellectual journey, Niza Yanay and Nitza Berkovitch—two brilliant and amazing women. Niza and Nitza’s feedback on sections of this book has been absolutely crucial. Niza Y always challenges me from unexpected directions, and I have learned so much from our conversations—as well as our disagreements—over the years. And I am forever grateful for Nitza B’s thoroughness, generosity, and insights. The two Nitzot/Nizot have taught me so much about what it means to live a feminist life. Then there is Yinon Cohen, whom I have not only come to admire and adore but who has provided me with all kinds of sustenance—intellectual and otherwise, over the years.
The last two years in the United Kingdom have utterly transformed my life—both intellectually and personally. I have found a wellspring of feminist intellectuality, comradery, and solidarity here, something unlike anything I have ever experienced before. I am humbled by the way that I have been embraced in London. I have no words to express my gratitude to a number of astonishing feminist thinkers whose work I have admired for years and finally met in person; each of these women has profoundly influenced my research and my intellectual journey. I would like to express a deep and profound debt to Lynne Segal. She literally adopted me and my family; she radiates warmth, solicitousness, and sparkling intellect. She is a vibrant feminist force and her ability to combine theory and praxis is truly inspiring. Lynne has become one of my key feminist interlocuters as well as my walking companion and chosen
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kin. She has read parts of this book and provided me with invaluable feedback. I would also like to express a deep and profound debt to both Rosalind Gill and Angela McRobbie. Ros has read much of this manuscript, offering so many absolutely brilliant insights and critiques. I admire her spectacular work and generosity to no end. Angela McRobbie, too, has so warmly welcomed me into her world, and for this I am eternally grateful. Angela has also read much of this manuscript, and her feedback and our many conversations have enriched my thinking in ways too numerous to limn. Thank you, Angela—for your encouragement, friendship, and amazing mind. Shani Orgad and Christina Scharff are two incredible feminist thinkers whose work has not only profoundly influenced my own but with which this book is in constant conversation. In addition to her formidable intellect, Shani’s critical eye, rigor, and sensitivity are simply phenomenal. I would also like express my gratitude to Jo Littler, who has become part of my life, both intellectually and personally. I have already learned so much from her research and from her comments on sections of this book. Thanks also go to Jeremy Gilbert and Sarah Banet-Weiser. This project was funded by two generous grants—The Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (The EU Horizon 2020, RNF 704010), which has enabled me to spend two formative years in London as a visiting professor at Goldsmiths, University of London. I also received an individual grant from the Israel Science Foundation (No. 602/16), which has allowed me to continue my research under enviable conditions. I am extremely grateful to Vikki Bell for sponsoring me—without her these two years would not have been possible. I first read her amazing work as a graduate student, and her graciousness and wisdom have provided me with a
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safe haven in the United Kingdom. She, too, has become an important feminist interlocuter for me.
I am indebted to my two wonderful editors at Oxford University Press: Ruth O’Brien and Angela Chnapko. Ruth’s and Angela’s enthusiasm for this project from the very beginning has been a lifeline. Their astute comments and responsiveness alongside their unfaltering belief in the manuscript has made the publication process seamless and (unexpectedly) enjoyable. I wish to thank the anonymous readers of the manuscript as well; their insightful comments helped to push me forward.
Judith Butler and Wendy Brown are two feminist thinkers whose work has shaped my intellectual path at every step of the way and whose sheer brilliance, integrity, and generosity are unparalleled. I was incredibly fortunate to be able to spend a year with them as a young scholar. They are my gold standard (forgive the market metaphor!), and it is important for me to mention my awesome intellectual and political debt to them.
I would also like to take a moment to thank many dear friends—old and new—who have sustained me over the years in different ways: Maya Barzilai, Lisa Baraitser, Yigal Bronner, Andreas Chatzidakis, Hagit Damri, Orit Freiberg, Laleh Khalili, Halleli Pinson, and Raz Shpeizer. Thank you all.
I would, of course, also like to thank my family—David and Shelly Rottenberg as well as my sister, Elizabeth. They have supported me unconditionally, each in their different way. I would also like to thank Rachela Gordon for rescuing me when no one else could. It has been a long and interesting journey for all of us, and I love you all dearly.
Finally, I have a debt that accumulates with each passing day. It is a debt unlike any other. Neve Gordon, my partner of
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over twenty years, has read, discussed, and argued with me about every single aspect of this book. He has taught me the true meaning of care work, and it was from him that I first learned what expansive generosity looks like. His passion and intrepidity have enriched my life more than I can even begin to express. He is my partner in every sense of the word—and our life together is as rare as it is precious. This book is dedicated to my two sons, Ari and Avivi, both of whom have become fierce feminist forces in their own right. They challenge me every single day, and their irrepressibility has made my life so much more meaningful. They are gorgeous human beings who give me hope for the future. I love you both more than you can ever imagine.
Different versions of Chapter 1 were published in Feminist Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): 144–69 and Chapter 3 in Signs 42, no. 2 (2017): 329–48. Chapter 2 is derived, in part, from an article published in Cultural Studies 28, no. 3 (2014): 418–37. All sections are reprinted with permission.
THE RISE OF NEOLIBERAL FEMINISM
INTRODUCTION
Feminism in Neoliberal Times
FOR MANY PROGRESSIVE AMERICANS, HILLARY Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as well as her strong endorsement by feminist organizations marked one of the high points of a resurgent feminist agenda in the United States. In the days leading up to the election, there was heightened and almost palpable anticipation among a great number of people about the possibility of ushering in a new era when, for the first time in US history, there would be a woman at the helm of the most powerful nation. Consequently, in the wake of Clinton’s unexpected—and, for many, horrifying— defeat, it has proven difficult to assess the significance of a female candidate running on a pro-woman and feministidentified ticket. For quite a few pundits and critics, Donald Trump’s triumph simply signified an angry backlash against feminist gains and rhetoric. The speed with which President Trump has attempted to put his administration’s sexist and anti-abortion agenda into action seems to lend credence to the notion that we are witnessing yet another violent backlash against women’s progress. There is little doubt that we have entered a particularly frightening period in the history of the Unites States,
especially since the new administration seems hell-bent on eviscerating much of what remains of the country’s democratic institutions, agencies, and traditions, flawed as they may have always been. In an interview not long after Trump’s inauguration, the activist and author Naomi Klein suggested that Donald Trump’s victory has led to a veritable corporate coup, while Cornel West has warned that the United States is currently on the brink of neofascism.1 A full-blown assault on women’s rights and gender equality appears to be just around the corner. Indeed, the US administration’s strike against reproductive rights has already begun, first with the executive order reinstating the so-called Global Gag Rule—prohibiting non-US nongovernmental organizations that receive US funding from providing, educating, or advising women about abortions—and subsequently with the passage of legislation that aims to defund organizations such as Planned Parenthood. Writing for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website, Brigitte Amiri states that “there is no question that President Trump hopes to stop progress toward full LGBT equality and access to reproductive rights.”2 Irrespective of how the rest of Trump’s term transpires, it seems clear that an inordinate amount of damage will already have been done.3
The majority of this book, however, was written during what, today, feels like a very different period—a period in which certain progressive positions, such as the longoverdue acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) rights, appeared to be moving ineluctably from the margins into the mainstream and institutional consensus. One has only to think about the Marriage Equality Act as well as the nomination of the first woman and feminist-identified presidential candidate by a
major national party. Many on the left—myself included— were quite ambivalent about these developments, in large part because the enfolding of progressive movements into mainstream common sense seemed inevitably to entail a willful elision of the devastation wrought by neoliberal policies—not least on the lives of poor women and women of color—as well as the rendering (even) more invisible of vast structural inequalities and continued oppression on so many different fronts.4
Since January 20, 2017, however, the political climate has been transformed in ways few predicted. We now have a ruthless business tycoon with no previous political experience in the Oval Office, a president who actually lost the popular vote by a historic margin of at least three million votes. The Trump administration is also riddled with profoundly disturbing—and ostensibly irreconcilable— contradictions. A vehemently anti-choice evangelical Christian has become vice president and an unapologetic white nationalist served as chief White House strategist, while Trump’s cabinet members—those appointees who are currently heading the most important governmental agencies—literally embody neoliberal principles in their most extreme form, namely, intensified deregulation, privatization, and capital enhancement, spelling doom for the remaining vestiges of the New Deal safety net and urgently needed policies protecting the environment. What is so striking is that neoliberalism, which is most often linked with promoting the unhindered transnational flow of capital and goods, has become the bedfellow of a hyped-up version of economic and nativist nationalism. While this current convergence of neoliberalism with what Cornel West has termed neofascism is perhaps nothing new on the
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contemporary political landscape—existing in other countries for some time—it is still shocking and terrifying for many people across the globe to witness this merging in the United States.5 Indeed, actions taken by the Trump administration, including his flurry of extremely controversial executive orders, have already sparked mass mobilization and protest on a scale not seen for decades.6 Perhaps we have entered a new era of renewed mass popular resistance, where notions of social justice and equality will be given new life and potentially present an alternative to both the neofascist tendencies of the new administration as well as the neoliberal market rationality that continues to colonize our world apace. This, at least, is my hope, and one that I return to in Chapter 6.
As will become clear, however, The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism tracks a different if interrelated phenomenon, namely, the mutual entanglement of neoliberalism with feminism, which has always been considered a progressive political stance.7 This research odyssey began in 2012 when, after a long period of latency in which few women—let alone powerful women—were willing to identify publicly as feminist, the status quo began to change both rapidly and dramatically. All of a sudden, many high-profile women in the United States were loudly declaring themselves feminists, one after the other: from the former director of policy planning for the US State Department Anne-Marie Slaughter, the former president of Barnard College Debora Spar and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, to young Hollywood star Emma Watson and music celebrities Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé. Feminism had suddenly become acceptable and intensely popular in ways that it simply had never been before.8
The prospect of a resurgent feminist discourse was, of course, exhilarating, particularly since the term “postfeminism”—which Rosalind Gill describes as a complex “entanglement of feminist and anti-feminist ideas”—was already in mass circulation and had been doing such a good job at eschewing the necessity of an organized mass women’s movement.9 And, yet, many long-time activists and scholars were wary of the newest development due, in large part, to the all but total disappearance of key terms that had traditionally been inseparable from public feminist discussions and debates, namely, equal rights, liberation, and social justice.10 In their stead, other words, such as happiness, balance, responsibility, and lean in, began to appear with stubborn consistency. Fascinated by the widespread circulation and acceptance of a new feminist vocabulary alongside the elision of so many key terms, I began to follow the individualizing and political anesthetizing effect of this new variant of feminism.
It was the appearance of a new feminist vocabulary that first motivated me to begin examining feminism’s new visibility in mainstream cultural outlets, ranging from newspaper and magazine articles to television series, bestselling autobiographies and “how-to-succeed” guides for women, and so-called mommy blogs. I wanted to understand why this form of feminism became publicly acceptable and was gaining such widespread currency as well as to query whether the changing vocabulary was indeed linked to the legitimacy feminism had suddenly acquired in the US popular imagination. My interest in this novel cultural phenomenon peaked when several conservative actors—from Prime Minister Theresa May in the United Kingdom to Ivanka Trump—joined the ranks of an already impressive
