ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that individualisation and neoliberalism provide explanatory tools to analyse young women's rejection of feminism. Both individualisation and neoliberalism have been theorised by a range of authors. Zygmunt Bauman's and Angela McRobbie's account of individualisation, as well as the Foucauldian approach to neoliberalism provide useful frameworks to explore the research participants repudiation of feminism. The term neoliberalism is being used variously, not only across time and space but also within different political and disciplinary contexts. Monetary policies include attempts to lower inflation; maintain fiscal balance, flexible labour markets, trade and financial liberalisation, and privatization. In the context of feminist dis-identification, the neoliberal notions of choice and personal responsibility work to undo feminist claims because of their emphasis on individualism and autonomy which do not sit well with the perceived collectivism of feminist activism and focus on structural constraints. Anne Cronin illustrates the mutually constitutive link between the idea of a voluntaristic self and neoliberal discourses.
