Market feminism at work : how gender equality policies became class-blind

Résumé En

Since the 2000s a "business feminism" or a "market feminism" grow and became very popular. This neoliberal discourse justifies positive actions for the “business case” of gender equality. A socio-historical survey of a large French utilities company, privatized and transformed into a multinational in 2000s, provides an opportunity to show in practices how gender equality policies became class-blind. This multinational company is considered as an "equality champion" on various rankings, including its feminization of the corporate board and senior management. The survey is based on the works council archives (from 1983 to 2016) and on a hundred interviews with managers, trade unionists, and female workers from low-ranks to top management (between 2004 and 2016).This monograph reveals that in the 1980s and 1990s, equality was a trade union claim, sensitive to low-paid women issues, but was not legitimate for (male-dominated) management. Since the 2000s, equality is supported by a business women’s network, and more legitimate to (mixed-balanced) management, for HR and communication issues. This managerial version of equality is selective in areas of action (diversity in decision-making spheres, support for active parenthood), and elitist in terms of rights holders (priority given to senior managers, indifference to low-paid workers). This has two major consequences: market feminism accompanies, or even accelerates the company’s financial restructuring; it disrupts labour feminism, as women trade unionists, more qualified, are often in conflict with their male camarades skeptical, even hostile, to this issue now in the hands of management.Market feminism is not only embodied in soft law tools, as labels and charters, but also tends to colonize gender equality collective bargaining, which tends to focus measures and budgets on the specific problems of professionals and managers (glass ceiling, work/family balance). The progressive gap between a negotiated equality that becomes conflictual and a diversity managerial policy that is increasingly oriented towards external signs (for clients, financial analysts, or job candidates) and a few over-selected "talented" or “potential” women reveals the risk of an "class-blind equality". The trend observed in this monograph was confirmed in an official report made fro the French Labour Ministry, thanks to textual analysis of a large sample of 200 negotiated agreements and action plans studied in 2014-2015.