Choice Feminism and Adult Worker Model in Neoliberal Era. Some Effects of Inclusive Policies

Abstract

In the last decade, the adult work model has been invoked, both by the EU social reformers and at an international level, to orient their respective policies on feminine work and social inclusion at different levels. Such neoliberal model assumes that feminization of work implies treating women as autonomous individuals free to choose their carrier in the job market or to decide whether to work, to take care of their family or to find time and spaces to conciliate both. In the western legal tradition and policies, the ideological approach of separation between public and private sphere is still dominant, and care has been confined in a private space concealed within the family. At the same time, feminization of paid work has become a synonym for precarious life, which involves both women and young men, and the rhetoric of individual responsibility and empowerment has been combined with harsh stabilization and structural adjustments policies and reduction of social policy. Consequently, a premise grounded on free choice is misleading. Different methodological approaches, both deductive and inductive, will be used in this paper, together with comparative and philosophical insights on statistical data and scholarly writings.