From Hillary Clinton to Ivanka Trump and from Emma Watson all the way to Beyonce, more and more high-powered women are unabashedly identifying as feminists in the mainstream media. In the past few years feminism has indeed gained increasing visibility and even urgency. Yet, in her analysis of recent bestselling feminist manifestos, well-trafficked mommy blogs, and television series such as The Good Wife, Catherine Rottenberg reveals that a particular variant of feminism--which she calls neoliberal feminism--has come to dominate the cultural landscape, one that is not interested in a mass women's movement or struggles for social justice. Rather, this feminism has introduced the notion of a happy work-family balance into the popular imagination, while transforming balance into a feminist ideal. So-called "aspirational women" are now exhorted to focus on cultivating a felicitous equilibrium between their child-rearing responsibilities and their professional goals, and thus to
abandon key goals that have historically informed feminism, including equal rights and liberation.
Rottenberg maintains that because neoliberalism reduces everything to market calculations it actually needs feminism in order to "solve" thorny issues related to reproduction and care. She goes on to show how women of color and poor and immigrant women most often serve as the unacknowledged care-workers who enable professional women to strive toward balance, arguing that neoliberal feminism legitimates the exploitation of the vast majority of women while disarticulating any kind of structural critique. It is not surprising, then, that this new feminist discourse has increasingly dovetailed with conservative forces. In Europe, gender parity has been used by Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders to further racist, anti-immigrant agendas, while in the United States, women's rights has been invoked to justify interventions in countries with majority Muslim populations. And though campaigns such as #MeToo and #TimesUp appear to be shifting the discussion, given our frightening neoliberal reality,
these movements are currently insufficient. Rottenberg therefore concludes by raising urgent questions about how we can successfully reorient and reclaim feminism as a social justice movement.
Industry Reviews
In this accessible, fascinating book, Rottenberg brilliantly captures the contemporary discursive politics of feminism. This text should be widely read. * D. J. Mattingly, San Diego State University, CHOICE *
[Rottenberg] imbue[s] the analysis with acuity and wit... For a relatively short book, there's a lot in The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism. * Times Higher Education *
Written with energetic sparkling prose and great erudition, Catherine Rottenberg displays a capacious knowledge of all the recent twists and turns in popular presentations of feminism. This is exactly the book we need now to grapple with a neoliberal rationality working to undermine feminist resistance to the worsening situation of the majority of women, while clearing pathways for a passionate return to dynamic feminist dialogue and creative, all-embracing feminist practices. * Lynne Segal, author of Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy *
An incisive critical intervention. * Rosalind Gill, author of Gender and the Media *
Catherine Rottenberg has created an indispensable resource for those working in feminist theory, media studies, cultural studies and communication. Incisively critiquing a new, highly visible version of feminism, Rottenberg demonstrates through careful analysis and theoretical rigor that feminist messages of having it all and leaning in need to be carefully interrogated for who, and what, these messages and practices exclude. In a popular and media context where feminist messages abound and circulate with ease and alacrity, Rottenbergs voice is a crucial caution for all of us about the limitations of neoliberal feminism, as well as an urgent call to reclaim feminism as a social justice movement. * Sarah Banet-Weiser, Professor, author of Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny *
This is a remarkable and important book demonstrating with fine attention to detail the ways in which feminism has found itself appropriated and seemingly comfortably installed as part of the neoliberalization process to complement and indeed motivate women in work and family life. In a wonderfully well-written account, Rottenberg unsettles the terms and conditions which underpin neoliberal feminism. * Angela McRobbie, author of The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change *
Written with energetic, sparkling prose and great erudition, Catherine Rottenberg displays a capacious knowledge of all the recent twists and turns in popular presentations of feminism. This is exactly the book we need now to grapple with a neoliberal rationality working to undermine feminist resistance to the worsening situation of the majority of women, while clearing pathways for a passionate return to dynamic feminist dialogue and creative, all-embracing feminist practices. * Lynne Segal, author of Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy *
"For a relatively short book, there is a lot in The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism. Rottenberg turns her analytical eye to a range of cultural products, from the "have it all" privileged musings of Ivanka Trump to "mommy blogs" and popular TV shows such as CBS' The Good Wife and the Danish series Borgen, in which it becomes painfully apparent that in order to maintain the moral high ground in the future, "Brigitte will have to do a better job balancing family and work." It is an all too familiar pattern." - Emma Rees Times Higher Education
