The aim of the article is to explore the psychic life of executive women under neoliberalism using psychosocial approaches. The article shows how, despite enduring unfair treatment and access to opportunities, many executive women remain emotionally invested in upholding the neoliberal ideal that if one perseveres, one shall be successful, regardless of gender. Drawing on psychosocial approaches, we explore how the accounts given by some executive women of repudiation, as denying gender inequality, and individualisation, as subjects completely agentic, are underpinned by the unconscious, intertwined processes of splitting and blaming. Women sometimes split off undesirable aspects of the workplace, which repudiates gender inequality, or blame other women, which individualises failure and responsibility for change. We explain that splitting and blaming enable some executive women to manage the anxiety evoked from threats to the neoliberal ideal of the workplace. This article thereby makes a contribution to existing postfeminist scholarship by integrating psychosocial approaches to the study of the psychic life of neoliberal executive women, by exploring why they appear unable to engage directly with and redress instances of gender discrimination in the workplace.

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In globalized economies, organizations invest significant resources in managing talent in their diverse workforce. Presumably, talent and diversity management are complementary and interrelated, sharing the similar aim to nurture the skills, attributes, and career progression of the workforce. However, the two practices are also at odds. Talent management has been defined by an exclusionary paradigm focused on developing an elite segment of the workforce. We explore the problematic effect of talent management on equality. Talent management could foreclose how perceptions of “talent” are deeply inflected in gendered, classist, and racialized ways. The complex experiences of minority groups in gaining access to and progression within organizations should be considered. We discuss how talent management could be used to catalyze equality in organizations and suggest future research on the intersection between equality, diversity, and talent management.

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