IBS Lunchtime Research Seminar - Mobilising Femininities at Work: Challenging or Cementing Gender Inequality

You are cordially invited to attend an International Business and Strategy Departmental Research Meeting, during which there will be a presentation by Dr Melissa Carr, Henley Business School. A reminder that attendance for IBS (full time, research oriented) staff and full-time students is compulsory, and where possible, must be in person. Individuals unable to attend in person, due to legitimate reasons will be provided a Teams link on request. Non-IBS staff are welcome to attend, but must register prior to the event. If you have not received the email invite please email Angie Clark

Please join us in Room 108, Henley Business School, if you would like to attend, please register using the link below:

Please make sure you let me know in advance if you intend to attend in person so that the correct amount of catering is booked.

Date: Wednesday 12th November 2025, HBS Room 108

Time: 13.00 - 14.30

Abstract:

The postfeminist sensibility entails a focus on individual choice, agency and empowerment with an associated negation of structural inequalities. In the literature on post feminism, collective awareness and action is often suggested as a way to challenge structural inequalities. This article critically examines whether women collectively mobilising can challenge gender inequalities. Drawing on interviews with women managers in a bank, the article develops the concept of mobilising femininities as women collectively performing femininities. The article shows how women mobilise femininities either as a traditional form of nurturing femininity or to protect women from men mobilising masculinities. Rather than challenging the status quo, this collective mobilising of femininities is largely an apolitical support mechanism that recurs to essentialised notions of femininity. The article thus extends the literature on a postfeminist sensibility by showing that collective action through mobilising femininities does not necessarily challenge structural gender inequalities.