“empowered”

Popular feminism, as Sarah Banet-Weiser discusses, is just that– feminism that exists in popular discourse.

Its primary goal is increase individual capability within women by fighting the injury of sexism. It does this by aiming to “empower” women. This looks like bringing women to the table. This looks like ad campaigns that champions the abilities of women. Or bringing any amount of visibility to the issue.

But according to Banet-Weiser, it often ends with that as well. Visibility, instead of being a means to the end, because the end itself.

Perhaps instead of asking, “how can we get more women in CEO roles?” we should be asking, “what does the lack of women in CEO roles say about the system?” and then proceed to build a new system based upon that information.



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