Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Berglund K, Ahl H, Pettersson K, Tillmar M. Women's entrepreneurship, neoliberalism and economic justice in the postfeminist era: A discourse analysis of policy change in Sweden. Gender Work Organ. 2018;25:531–556. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12269 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gwao.12269 abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Accepted author manuscript, 272 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Women's entrepreneurship, neoliberalism and economic justice in the postfeminist era
T2 - A discourse analysis of policy change in Sweden
AU - Berglund, Karin
AU - Ahl, Helene
AU - Pettersson, Katarina
AU - Tillmar, Malin
N1 - This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Berglund K, Ahl H, Pettersson K, Tillmar M. Women's entrepreneurship, neoliberalism and economic justice in the postfeminist era: A discourse analysis of policy change in Sweden. Gender Work Organ. 2018;25:531–556. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12269 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gwao.12269 abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
PY - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - Since the early 1990s, there has been investment in women's entrepreneurship policy (WEP) in Sweden, which continued until 2015. During the same period, Sweden assumed neoliberal policies that profoundly changed the position of women within the world of work and business. The goals for WEP changed as a result, from entrepreneurship as a way to create a more equal society, to the goal of unleashing women's entrepreneurial potential so they can contribute to economic growth. To better understand this shift we approach WEP as a neoliberal governmentality which offers women ‘entrepreneurial’ or ‘postfeminist’ subject positions. The analysis is inspired by political theorist Nancy Fraser who theorized the change as the displacement of socioeconomic redistribution in favour of cultural recognition, or identity politics. We use Fraser's concepts in a discourse analysis of Swedish WEP over two decades, identifying two distinct discourses and three discursive displacements. Whilst WEP initially gave precedence to a radical feminist discourse that called for women's collective action, this was replaced by a postfeminist neoliberal discourse that encouraged individual women to assume an entrepreneurial persona, start their own business, compete in the marketplace and contribute to economic growth. The result was the continued subordination of women business owners, but it also obscured or rendered structural problems/solutions, and collective feminist action, irrelevant.
AB - Since the early 1990s, there has been investment in women's entrepreneurship policy (WEP) in Sweden, which continued until 2015. During the same period, Sweden assumed neoliberal policies that profoundly changed the position of women within the world of work and business. The goals for WEP changed as a result, from entrepreneurship as a way to create a more equal society, to the goal of unleashing women's entrepreneurial potential so they can contribute to economic growth. To better understand this shift we approach WEP as a neoliberal governmentality which offers women ‘entrepreneurial’ or ‘postfeminist’ subject positions. The analysis is inspired by political theorist Nancy Fraser who theorized the change as the displacement of socioeconomic redistribution in favour of cultural recognition, or identity politics. We use Fraser's concepts in a discourse analysis of Swedish WEP over two decades, identifying two distinct discourses and three discursive displacements. Whilst WEP initially gave precedence to a radical feminist discourse that called for women's collective action, this was replaced by a postfeminist neoliberal discourse that encouraged individual women to assume an entrepreneurial persona, start their own business, compete in the marketplace and contribute to economic growth. The result was the continued subordination of women business owners, but it also obscured or rendered structural problems/solutions, and collective feminist action, irrelevant.
KW - discourses of recognition and redistribution
KW - discursive displacements
KW - neoliberalism
KW - postfeminism
KW - women's entrepreneurship policy
U2 - 10.1111/gwao.12269
DO - 10.1111/gwao.12269
M3 - Journal article
VL - 25
SP - 531
EP - 556
JO - Gender, Work and Organization
JF - Gender, Work and Organization
SN - 0968-6673
IS - 5
ER -