- Title
- Careerism and capitalism as women’s emancipation: a critical analysis of Rand Merchant Bank’s ‘Athena Programme', South Africa
- Creator
- Mosesi, Poloko Prudence
- ThesisAdvisor
- Fryer, David
- ThesisAdvisor
- Van der Walt, Lucien
- Subject
- Rand Merchant Bank (South Africa)
- Subject
- Women in economic development -- South Africa
- Subject
- Women in finance -- South Africa
- Subject
- Neoliberalism -- South Africa
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- text
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSocSc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140344
- Identifier
- vital:37881
- Description
- Against the backdrop of debates on feminism and neo– liberalism, this thesis presents a critical analysis of Rand Merchant Bank’s (RMB) Athena programme in South Africa – an award– winning programme run by women, which aims to develop women as senior managers – and of the type of feminism it represents, using a Marxist feminist theoretical framework. Rand Merchant Bank’s is one of the largest investment banks in Africa, part of the giant First Rand Group (FRG) alongside First National Bank (FNB) group. The thesis, based on a detailed case study using qualitative methods, argues that Athena is a very much product of its time: it advances the argument that if more women were in position of power, women in general would be free, and it views the problem of women’s oppression with an individualist lens, which focuses on attitudes and confidence. Athena, like many initiatives of the neo– liberal era, such as Sandberg’s Lean– In philosophy and the Nike Foundation’s ‘Girl Effect’ promote individual understanding and emancipation of women, which sees emancipation in terms of creating a neo– liberal subject that operates more effectively within a capitalist framework, sees capitalism as the solution – rather than the cause – of women’s unequal circumstance and ignores structural issues like class. In effect, Athena argues that the free market and big corporations are neutral tools that can answer the question of women equality, if only women had the correct attitudes, and so long as corporate hierarchies and profits are accepted as fair, and women are seen as an untapped resource that can be used in a ‘smart economics.’ What all these initiatives have in common is shifting the burden and responsibility to women without proper interrogation of the systems that perpetuate inequalities, and a trickle– down theory, according to which more women capitalists and more women in the ruling class will empower the women in the working class.
- Format
- 87 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Sociology
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Mosesi, Poloko Prudence
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Collections
Gender Action Forum (GENACT)
RU Department of Sociology
SDG 05. Gender Equality
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | MOSESI-MA-TR20-10.pdf | 1016 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |