ABSTRACT
Neoliberal models of management emphasize entrepreneurship, self-development and inspiring leadership, accentuating more and more the need for ‘soft’ personal and interpersonal management skills. They therefore welcome traits and qualities conventionally understood as ‘feminine’, as particularly useful in an adaptive postFordist economy where professionalism and technical know-how alone are unable to provide positive engagement with subordinates. This tendency of incorporating previous critiques, specific to neoliberal managerial discourse and technique (Boltanski and Chiapello 2005), appears to be an opportunity for redressing the balance of unjust gendered practices, offering women the possibility of surpassing the glass-ceiling and widening their professional areas. Nonetheless, I consider that gender divisions are kept in place despite the new rhetoric; while empowerment and self-identification of women occurs only insofar as it benefits business. Excellent examples of neoliberal self-regulation, female managers conform to authoritarian methods previously conceived as ‘masculine’ and ruthlessly enhance control and domination. Moreover, as traditional gender divisions are maintained, women internalize the egalitarian neoliberal discourse of self-improvement and efficiency, striving to be veritable entrepreneurs of themselves despite the fact that they are still employed in feminized niches.
