Globally Circulating Neoliberalism, Patriarchy, and the Differential Gendered Impact

One of the most critical factors shaping the experience of individuals in the 20^th and 21^st centuries has been the development and spread of neoliberal systems of government. Though rooted in ideas of economic liberalism, neoliberalism today broadly describes a regulatory system, encompassing both economic policies “emphasiz[ing] the market, fiscal discipline, trade, investment and financial liberalization, deregulation, decentralization, privatization, and an altered role for the state” and accompanying ideologies of self-development (Kalleberg and Hewison 274). While generally conceived as a western economic philosophy, neoliberalism has also taken root around the globe, with Japan and other East Asian countries serving as prime examples. In order to remain competitive in the globalizing neoliberal market, especially in light of the economic collapse or Asian Debt Crisis of the 80s and 90s, which cast doubt on the ideal of the company man and mega-corporations, Japanese companies adopted new operating styles, focused on sub-contracting and flexible labor markets that relied on precarious work. By 'precarious' I am referring to work without the guarantee of continued employment, health benefits, housing, safe conditions, etc. As companies shifted to subcontracting, the lack of steady 'regular' jobs meant that the default became precarious labor. This was accompanied by a positive emphasis on venture capital and flexible labor, which were seen (or rather produced) as productive, acceptable categories of risk, in contrast to the minimally productive day laboring jobs of the underemployed freeters (a term used in Japan to refer to un and underemployed youths), who also led 'risky' but societally unacceptable lives (Song 332). For more complex views on precarious work and freeters, see the linked path and page.

Yet despite the societal condemnation, the freeters themselves, and precarious youth more generally, embodied the very assumptions of the neoliberal market. In contrast to the past situation of the ‘company man,’ who would get a job at a mega corporation out of college and work there until retirement, then receive benefits until his death), precarious workers would go from job to job depending on the availability and demand. With no job security and very few benefits, these precarious workers, began to view their development and subsequent success or failure as their own responsibility; the workings of the system, the pressure to take on such precarious jobs and self-manage, was invisible. The result was that individuals growing up in the new system subconsciously took up the neoliberalist, capitalist ideologies of self-management and self-development, in which globalization and individualization are seen as concurrent processes. This can clearly be seen in the example of South Korean college students, who have idealized and strive to become “global human capital,” emphasizing the importance (and indeed the individual responsibility) to develop the self by learning skills to become competitive in the global market. This was true in the case of elite and non-elite individuals (Lin and Tong 233).

Yet not only are the systemic pressures on the individual obscured by their idealization and normalization, but so too is the gender differentiation they affect. While the elite status and relative wealth of one female student, Heejin, placed her in the position to succeed, she did so by “avoiding a feminized space” (a women’s college) in favor of a highly elite co-ed one. On the other hand, another student, Sori, was not given the resources to attend a private school to study for the college exams because her father saw her as “a hopeless case” and ended up at a “third tier” college where, she said, other students did not apply themselves. Furthermore, her father would not pass down his inheritance to her, as he would have to a son, because her ‘trade item,’ her brand, was not good enough. Thus, she took the impetus for development upon herself, and blamed herself for her own failings, while failing to recognize the double bind of the neoliberal system and its linkage to the patriarchy. (Lin and Tong 237). For further reading, go here.

Thus, while justified by its proponents as empowering individuals, I would argue that the neoliberal system actually enforces patriarchal values to the detriment of certain individuals, as this neoliberal discourse affects young men and women differentially. For example, while the shifting economy is seen as a valid reason for male under-employment, it is not seen as an excuse for females to fail in fulfilling their expected affective, reproductive roles, which are supposedly unaffected by the new flexible economy. This is at the same time, of course, that females are entering the job market in greater numbers than ever before—yet they are still expected to fulfill their ‘traditional’ work, and cannot use the market dynamics as an excuse for failure. This of course ties into the underlying conception of females as the site of social reproduction (both physically giving birth to children and imparting certain proscribed cultural and social values). This work is ‘regulated’ by the management of female bodies and particularly their sexuality; thus, ‘deviant’ female behavior often forms the basis of a moral panic.

What follows is a breakdown of several sites at which females are ‘regulated’ by the system, and those at which there is a slippage back into empowerment, or rather where females are empowered in spite of, by, or perhaps by coopting the signs and implements of the neoliberal system and the patriarchy.

Works Cited:

Driscoll, Mark. "Debt and Denunciation in Post-bubble Japan: On the Two Freeters." Cultural Critique 65.1 (2007): 164-87. Web. 27 Mar 2015.

Kalleberg, A. L., and K. Hewison. "Precarious Work and the Challenge for Asia." American Behavioral Scientist 57.3 (2013): 271-88. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.

Lin, Angel, and Avin Tong. “Re-Imagining a Cosmopolitan ‘Asian Us.’” East Asian Pop Culture (2008): 1-30. 29 April 2015.

Song, Jesook. (2007) "Venture Companies,’ ‘Flexible Labor,’ and the ‘New Intellectual’: The Neoliberal Construction of Underemployed Youth in South Korea." Journal of Youth Studies 10:3 (2007): 331-351. 29 April 2015.

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