Neoliberalism forces women into a double bind of either self-capitalization or invisibility

Evidence

When homo oeconomicus becomes normative across all spheres, and responsibilization and appreciation of human capital become the governing truth of public life, social life, work life, welfare, education, and the family, there are two possibilities for those positioned as women in the sexual division of labor that neoliberal orders continue to depend upon and reproduce. Either women align their own conduct with this truth, becoming homo oeconomicus, in which case the world becomes uninhabitable, or women’s activities and bearing as femina domestica remain the unavowed glue for a world whose governing principle cannot hold it together, in which case women occupy their old place as unacknowledged props and supplements to masculinist liberal subjects. … It is formulated, in short, as an effect of nature, not of power. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 205

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘On Sacrifice’ article theme — the unavowed feminine labor as glue echoes the sacrificial feminine logic seen across stratified societies. — connects to: Neoliberals gendered welfare dependency as emasculating female domestic servitude — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 177; Neoliberalism replaces labor with human capital and dissolves the stable self — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 162; Neoliberalism absorbed countercultural self-fashioning into self-optimization via the neurochemical self — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 421 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism redefined human being itself as human capital. #expands (0.82) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 134
• Neoliberalism transforms the self so that crises stop being read as system failures #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 302
• Neoliberalism replaces labor with human capital and dissolves the stable self #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 162
• Neoliberalism replaces class analysis with a cynical catechism of limitless self-transformation #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 332
• Neoliberalism absorbed countercultural self-fashioning into self-optimization via the neurochemical self #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 421
• Women self-select away from the highest-reward positions, sustaining gender hegemony #complicates (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 767
• Implicit chivalric romantic ideals reduce women’s career and income ambitions #complicates (0.72) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 771