Intersections of Feminisms and Neoliberalism: Post-State-Socialist Estonia in a Transnational Feminist Framework

Marling, Raili; Koobak, Redi

doi:10.5250/fronjwomestud.38.3.0001

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…As in much of Central Eastern Europe, Estonian political discourses and policies are driven by neoliberal ideologies (Bohle & Greskovits, 2007; Marling & Koobak, 2017; Saar & Aavik, 2022). Estonia has been classified as a prototypic neoliberal society and as such, accepts and perpetuates social inequality (Bettache et al., 2020).…”

Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is suggested in the quote above that “natural” differences between men and women are played out in pay negotiations and affect the result. This representation stems at least in part from individualism 5 and neoliberalism as hegemonic ideologies in Estonian society (Bohle & Greskovits, 2007; Marling & Koobak, 2017), which emphasize individual effort as a precondition for success while dismissing structural limitations and neglecting the fact that workers are positioned differently in social and organizational power hierarchies. These prevalent ideologies encourage the construction of the GPG not as a structural but as an individual problem.…”

Section: Findings: Gpg Problem Representationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The gender pay gap—What's the problem represented to be? Analyzing the discourses of Estonian employers, employees, and state officials on pay equality

Aavik,

Ubakivi‐Hadachi,

Raudsepp

et al. 2023

Gender Work & Organization

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The gender pay gap (GPG) remains significant in most countries and is a key indicator of gender inequality in society. Qualitative research on the GPG is scarce, yet, qualitative perspectives on the GPG are valuable as the ways in which the GPG is understood and talked about shape actions to tackle it. This article focuses on how the GPG is represented in the context of work and organizations, inspired by the “What's the Problem Represented to be?” approach, developed by Carol Bacchi. The analysis draws on qualitative data—63 interviews with employers, employees, and state officials—collected in Estonia which exhibits one of the largest GPGs in the European Union. Five dominant representations of the GPG were identified: the GPG as (a) consciously produced by employers, (b) different pay for the same work, (c) unmeasurable due to “unique” and “incomparable” jobs and workers, (d) produced by women's failure to ask for fair pay, and (e) impossible for employers to reduce because of market forces. Collectively, these representations render the GPG inevitable, downplaying its emergence as a result of specific gendered social practices. This has implications for the employers' and the state's willingness and strategies to reduce the GPG.

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Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Findings: Gpg Problem Representationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The gender pay gap—What's the problem represented to be? Analyzing the discourses of Estonian employers, employees, and state officials on pay equality

Aavik,

Ubakivi‐Hadachi,

Raudsepp

et al. 2023

Gender Work & Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…3 As a result, Estonia has been characterized by a strong business orientation and techno-optimism in the political sphere. Neoliberal practices are normalized everywhere, from academic settings to media discourse where achievement and self-responsibilization are valorized (Marling and Koobak, 2017). While most Eastern European countries are characterized by high levels of religiosity, Estonia has been the most secular country in Europe where only 6% of the population say religion is very important in their lives (Evans and Baronavski, 2018).…”

Section: Queer Intimacies Neoliberalism and Affectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affect and queer intimate entanglements in national-neoliberal Estonia

Marling

Põldsam

2022

Sexualities

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This article examines the affective entanglements and queer/ed intimacies in post-Soviet Estonia by analyzing ethnographic fieldwork. To build an intersectionally engaged analysis, the article employs Karen Barad’s agential realist model of intra-actions to show how intimate relationships are tied to socio-economic status and cultural setting. In Estonia, intimacy is framed by a homophobic discourse that erases anything but heteronormativity. This public erasure produces, on the one hand, moral panics and, on the other hand, affectively complex intimate entanglements among queer/ed subjects. The empirical analysis discusses conversations with five straight and queer women that contain rich affective narratives. It investigates how a person’s economic situation relates to their intimate relationship choice in a social sphere that is dominated by nationalist discourse and neoliberal rationality. This has created contradictory affective responses that are unpacked and contextualized in the article.

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“…More visible actions rarely go beyond EU gender equality policies. The focal point of feminism in Estonia has revolved around Western Europe and its main concerns have largely been affected by a mix of antifeminism, nationalism, neoliberalism and EU gender mainstreaming rhetoric (Marling and Koobak 2017). This is a clear point of reflection for feminists on the local level.…”

Section: How Do We Talk About Feminism Differently?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the preliminary studies of the re-emergence of feminism in Estonia since the 1990s (Koobak and Marling 2014b;Marling and Koobak 2017) show, it has been important to avoid talking about Eastern European feminisms in the transnational context as lagging behind 'Western feminism. ' Likewise, it is important to be rooted in geo-politics and body-politics of knowledge (Tlostanova 2012), to know local stories of feminism.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrating feminisms: what do we talk about when we talk about feminism in Estonia?

Koobak

2018

Gender, Place & Culture

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Drawing on interviews with women who identify as feminists in Estonia, this article explores how the stories we tell about feminism and its past influence the kind of theoretical and political work we are able to do. Zooming in on the story of the emergence of feminisms in postsocialist Estonia which has not been thoroughly researched yet, this article calls upon feminists in Estonia to reflect critically on how they conceptualize feminisms, while at the same time building a framework to think about local feminism within transnational feminist context. Starting from stories of how women became feminists in Estonia since the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, I reflect on the gaps, chance encounters and tensions that my fieldwork revealed to narrate feminism differently, to bring forth new aspects of feminism in this context. In particular, I focus on two moments: the common imaginary of 'real' feminism as Western mass movement and the tensions between the local context and 'Western feminism' . I complicate the narrative in the article through including interludes in between the main text to highlight how the incidents that happened outside and around the interviews shape my story of feminism in Estonia.

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Intersections of Feminisms and Neoliberalism: Post-State-Socialist Estonia in a Transnational Feminist Framework

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

The gender pay gap—What's the problem represented to be? Analyzing the discourses of Estonian employers, employees, and state officials on pay equality

The gender pay gap—What's the problem represented to be? Analyzing the discourses of Estonian employers, employees, and state officials on pay equality

Affect and queer intimate entanglements in national-neoliberal Estonia

Narrating feminisms: what do we talk about when we talk about feminism in Estonia?

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