ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the social mobility in relation to postfeminism with a specific focus on movement along the continuum of gender. It considers how the subjectivities available to women require a carefully calibrated simultaneous embrace of masculinity and femininity and how this calibration acts to restrict women both physically and symbolically within organisations. The chapter proceeds by outlining various interpretations of postfeminism, highlighting the contested nature of this complex phenomenon, while also explicating the notion of gender mobility connected to each version. Despite their differences, backlash postfeminism and positive postfeminism can both be understood as reactions to feminism. The corporate mother is a femininity which is taken up by women who are either already in a leadership position. The unruly mother identity communicates the negative consequences attached to not doing masculinity at all while the other three postfeminist maternal identities signal the cultural validation that attaches to the 'independent' woman who can correctly calibrate masculinity and femininity.
