Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Sara Zaeemdar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This paper examines how the neoliberal injunction to be authentic as addressed to working women operates at the level of the individual. Drawing on Foucault’s framing of self-construction, the paper conceptualizes the quest for the authentic feminine self as a technology of the self which enables women to work upon transformation of their subjectivity to attain a state of authenticity. The developed conceptual framework is applied in an in-depth structural and content analysis of work-life narratives of authenticity related by women training and development professionals. These narratives are a part of the field material collected during a two-year ethnographic study of the sector. Derived from theoretical and empirical analysis, the paper develops the notion of postfeminist technologies of authenticity which demonstrate the quest for the authentic feminine self as aligned with postfeminism, a neoliberal sensibility under which individualized and retraditionalized notions of femininity are constructed. Authenticity is therefore shown as a gendered form of control which works upon women’s self-construction in regressive ways contributing to the reproduction of gendered work, organizations, and power relations.
Author(s): Zaeemdar S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Organization
Year: 2024
Pages: Epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 11/01/2024
Acceptance date: 16/12/2023
Date deposited: 12/01/2024
ISSN (print): 1350-5084
ISSN (electronic): 1461-7323
Publisher: Sage Publications
URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084231224363
DOI: 10.1177/13505084231224363
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
