Market feminism: Commercializing gender and equality
In recent years, gender and equality have come to be understood more and more as both benefiting from and beneficial to economic growth and market thinking. This project critically examines the cultural consequences of such a transition. When equality, gender and norm critique are sold on the market, our understandings of what these are and what meanings they should have in society alter and create new opportunities as well as new challenges. Based on an ethnographic study of businesses in the gender and equality sector, such as gender consultancy firms, the project will analyze the emergence, creation and existence of a market for gender equality. Participant observations will be conducted during everyday activities of the businesses and qualitative interviews will be made with key representatives. The methodology will provide empirical knowledge in order to analyze the production of a market for gender, equality and norm critique. With close observations of daily activities it will be studied how knowledge of gender issues are sold. In interviews the participants will be asked to explain and make sense of the everyday activities. The project thus contributes to knowledge about the effects of commercialization on cultural perceptions of gender, as well as on how markets emerge as results of social concerns.
Final report
The purpose of the project and development during the project period
The aim of the project was to investigate the emergence of a market for gender equality and the relationship between feminism and profitability. The solution to gender inequalities is increasingly framed as a market matter, and gender equality motivated with economic gain. The idea that gender equality is ‘good for business’ is heard from politicians and company leaders. Terms like ‘femvertising’ and ‘norm-creative innovation’ that stress the competitive advantages of combining empowerment with market-building activities have grown strong and the recognition that work with inclusion and diversity has positive outcomes for brands and organizations has become widespread. Thus, feminism has become a commodity on a growing market. Feminists have increasingly become self-employed entrepreneurs that make a living out of sharing their knowledge and experience of gender inequalities to public administrations and private businesses. The purpose of the project has not changed but moved to include questions about the social significance of money (Zelizer 1994), and the emergence of a market for gender equality as an expression of a post-feminist sensibility (Gill 2017), it has also taken greater account of questions about both entrepreneurship and innovation. This has been done through an ethnographic study of gender and gender consultants. The material was based on participatory observations, interviews and analyzes of web pages.
The study has been multi-local and has moved on speech, text, digital environments and business practices. More than 20 in-depth interviews with gender consultants were conducted. These were active in a broad field of questions about gender, gender equality, diversity, inclusion and norm criticism. All had some form of their own employment or employment of a private company.
• The project’s three most important results and contribution to the international research front.
1. It’s not all ‘bout the money: (Un)doing the gendered economy.
The solution to gender inequalities is increasingly framed as a market matter. The project has examined what happens when gender equality is motivated with economic gain, feminism turned into a market commodity, and feminists become entrepreneurs. Gender consultants are a professional group who in their daily work deal with the causes and effects of commodifying feminism. The project has examined how gender consultants make sense of the conflicting meanings of markets solutions, economic gain, feminism and entrepreneurship. Further, in what ways the market assemblage of feminism, entrepreneurship and profit afford them agency and what subjectivities are formed in the process? Three different ways of understanding the market structured the findings. 1) Market thinking was perceived as something bad when it was seen to preserve structures and the status quo of inequalities, forming the figure of ‘the unwilling entrepreneur’. 2) The market was perceived something neutral when it could be put to use and thus formed the figure of ‘the pragmatic entrepreneur’. 3) The market was perceived as something good when it was understood as freedom and as having the potential to question the ideas of feminism as standing outside of ‘the economy’, thus, forming the figure of the ‘subversive entrepreneur’. The project found the meaning of money to be entwined in social relations in many ways and that ‘making money’ meant many other things than economic gain. Thus, the commodification of feminism may be understood as questioning the separation between economic and social values; of bringing the social into matters of the economy, and a refusal to accept the boundaries between subjects, gender, equality, and the economy. It points to the importance of challenging definitions of ‘the economy’ in order to build more feminist economies.
2. New feminist entrepreneurialism: Power and agency in the context of lifestyle bloggers and gender consultants.
The second most important result of the project examines the emergence of new feminisms in the 2010s. What is feminism in the 2010s? New entrepreneurial feminisms along with new ways of making money on femininity and feminism have emerged and spread exponentially through digital media. The gender consultants saw themselves as critics of the ‘gender system’. Their activities involved the creation of a market for gender expertise by developing tools to deal with issues brought up after #metoo. Drawing on Gill’s (2007, 2016) interpretation of post-feminism as a “sensibility”; a kind of emotional responsiveness that is enmeshed in a neoliberal message, the project has developed the argument of how responses to feminism, individualism, choice and agency can be understood from the context of gender consultancy. When listening to these self-employed workers and entrepreneurs it became clear that post-feminist sensibilities made sense as a matter of taking control over one’s own life and one’s economic activities, and as a way of increasing one’s space for agency.
3. ‘Back on the barricade’: New feminisms and market innovation in the consultancy field.
The third contribution is about highlighting the market for gender issues as a field for innovation. With inspiration from Katherine Gibson (2019) and Gibson-Graham (2015), new economic innovations are discussed as gender equality consultants work with as an expression of the ambition to transform representations of the social economy to build more ethical economies.
• New research issues generated through the project.
New research issues generated within the project are about seeing the commercialization of gender, feminism and gender equality as innovations. A second new research issue is about the social significance of money (Zelizer 1994, 2017), as well as gender and entrepreneurship.
• The project's international dimensions, such as contacts, materials and so on.
The project has been invited to a workshop on "Economies of detachment", Université Toulouse II, by Professor Gay Hawkins, Sydney & Professor Franck Cochoy, Toulouse.
It has been presented at five international conferences, as well as an international workshop and is accepted for GWO 2020, as well as the international workshop "Re-thinking Research and Innovation: How Does Gender Matter?", Organized by Professor Gabriele Griffin. Uppsala university. The project has also led to collaboration within networks of researchers in gender, entrepreneurship and innovation.
• How the project team has disseminated the results to other researchers and groups outside the scientific community, and whether and how collaboration has taken place.
The project has been highlighted in the media by the Gender Secretariat's journal in both Swedish and English. "Feminism som säljer" and "Feminism that sells" respectively.
The aim of the project was to investigate the emergence of a market for gender equality and the relationship between feminism and profitability. The solution to gender inequalities is increasingly framed as a market matter, and gender equality motivated with economic gain. The idea that gender equality is ‘good for business’ is heard from politicians and company leaders. Terms like ‘femvertising’ and ‘norm-creative innovation’ that stress the competitive advantages of combining empowerment with market-building activities have grown strong and the recognition that work with inclusion and diversity has positive outcomes for brands and organizations has become widespread. Thus, feminism has become a commodity on a growing market. Feminists have increasingly become self-employed entrepreneurs that make a living out of sharing their knowledge and experience of gender inequalities to public administrations and private businesses. The purpose of the project has not changed but moved to include questions about the social significance of money (Zelizer 1994), and the emergence of a market for gender equality as an expression of a post-feminist sensibility (Gill 2017), it has also taken greater account of questions about both entrepreneurship and innovation. This has been done through an ethnographic study of gender and gender consultants. The material was based on participatory observations, interviews and analyzes of web pages.
The study has been multi-local and has moved on speech, text, digital environments and business practices. More than 20 in-depth interviews with gender consultants were conducted. These were active in a broad field of questions about gender, gender equality, diversity, inclusion and norm criticism. All had some form of their own employment or employment of a private company.
• The project’s three most important results and contribution to the international research front.
1. It’s not all ‘bout the money: (Un)doing the gendered economy.
The solution to gender inequalities is increasingly framed as a market matter. The project has examined what happens when gender equality is motivated with economic gain, feminism turned into a market commodity, and feminists become entrepreneurs. Gender consultants are a professional group who in their daily work deal with the causes and effects of commodifying feminism. The project has examined how gender consultants make sense of the conflicting meanings of markets solutions, economic gain, feminism and entrepreneurship. Further, in what ways the market assemblage of feminism, entrepreneurship and profit afford them agency and what subjectivities are formed in the process? Three different ways of understanding the market structured the findings. 1) Market thinking was perceived as something bad when it was seen to preserve structures and the status quo of inequalities, forming the figure of ‘the unwilling entrepreneur’. 2) The market was perceived something neutral when it could be put to use and thus formed the figure of ‘the pragmatic entrepreneur’. 3) The market was perceived as something good when it was understood as freedom and as having the potential to question the ideas of feminism as standing outside of ‘the economy’, thus, forming the figure of the ‘subversive entrepreneur’. The project found the meaning of money to be entwined in social relations in many ways and that ‘making money’ meant many other things than economic gain. Thus, the commodification of feminism may be understood as questioning the separation between economic and social values; of bringing the social into matters of the economy, and a refusal to accept the boundaries between subjects, gender, equality, and the economy. It points to the importance of challenging definitions of ‘the economy’ in order to build more feminist economies.
2. New feminist entrepreneurialism: Power and agency in the context of lifestyle bloggers and gender consultants.
The second most important result of the project examines the emergence of new feminisms in the 2010s. What is feminism in the 2010s? New entrepreneurial feminisms along with new ways of making money on femininity and feminism have emerged and spread exponentially through digital media. The gender consultants saw themselves as critics of the ‘gender system’. Their activities involved the creation of a market for gender expertise by developing tools to deal with issues brought up after #metoo. Drawing on Gill’s (2007, 2016) interpretation of post-feminism as a “sensibility”; a kind of emotional responsiveness that is enmeshed in a neoliberal message, the project has developed the argument of how responses to feminism, individualism, choice and agency can be understood from the context of gender consultancy. When listening to these self-employed workers and entrepreneurs it became clear that post-feminist sensibilities made sense as a matter of taking control over one’s own life and one’s economic activities, and as a way of increasing one’s space for agency.
3. ‘Back on the barricade’: New feminisms and market innovation in the consultancy field.
The third contribution is about highlighting the market for gender issues as a field for innovation. With inspiration from Katherine Gibson (2019) and Gibson-Graham (2015), new economic innovations are discussed as gender equality consultants work with as an expression of the ambition to transform representations of the social economy to build more ethical economies.
• New research issues generated through the project.
New research issues generated within the project are about seeing the commercialization of gender, feminism and gender equality as innovations. A second new research issue is about the social significance of money (Zelizer 1994, 2017), as well as gender and entrepreneurship.
• The project's international dimensions, such as contacts, materials and so on.
The project has been invited to a workshop on "Economies of detachment", Université Toulouse II, by Professor Gay Hawkins, Sydney & Professor Franck Cochoy, Toulouse.
It has been presented at five international conferences, as well as an international workshop and is accepted for GWO 2020, as well as the international workshop "Re-thinking Research and Innovation: How Does Gender Matter?", Organized by Professor Gabriele Griffin. Uppsala university. The project has also led to collaboration within networks of researchers in gender, entrepreneurship and innovation.
• How the project team has disseminated the results to other researchers and groups outside the scientific community, and whether and how collaboration has taken place.
The project has been highlighted in the media by the Gender Secretariat's journal in both Swedish and English. "Feminism som säljer" and "Feminism that sells" respectively.