ABSTRACT
This 2019 article by Marco Öchsner and Georgina Murray explores the relationship between feminism and capitalism in the neoliberal age. First, the chapter gives an overview of the history of neoliberalism and its impacts on the construction of the subject in society and education. As the authors demonstrate, education has become a means to increase one’s human capital, while capitalism, since Marx, has been recognized as a precarious state that leads to the continual devaluation and objectification of human labour. The chapter then discusses the history of feminism and the move to a postfeminist orientation. This latter orientation syncs well with neoliberalism, as the economic productivity and value of women as individuals are at the forefront, while sociological and political accounts of freedom and well-being are neglected. In education, this means women are taught to see themselves as individuals, not considering the gendered dimensions of global- and societal-level inequity and the double standards for women to be productive at home (in unpaid labour) and outside it. While neoliberalist ideology exploits disadvantaged members of society as workers, for women the postfeminist trend leads to a triple bind. How education can intervene is explored at the end of this piece. This chapter is helpful in elaborating the trends of neoliberalism and feminism and postfeminist thought over time as they intersect and is fascinating to consider in light of the historical concerns with neoliberalism addressed in earlier chapters of this book.
