The growing prominence of female executives in the last decade appears to portend a new era for women in leadership. The success of women like Sheryl Sandberg, whose business manual Lean In calls on women to ‘forge a path through the obstacles, and achieve their full potential’, has contributed to the idea that gender equality will be won in the free market of corporate leadership. In our postfeminist times, sexism is believed to be a relic of the past. Enlightened contemporary organizations have demolished systemic gender barriers and any odd case of discrimination is the fault of a deviant manager. With fervent conviction in their inherent meritocracy, organizations hold firm to an overriding focus on individual freedom. In this feminist utopia, female professionals are exhorted to ‘lean in’ and seize the myriad opportunities to become leaders.

This optimism requires turning a blind eye to systems of power and histories of oppression. Feminism, when recast in neoliberal terms, becomes an individualistic, entrepreneurial project. For example, both academic studies and practitioner handbooks have concluded with recommendations for women to cultivate an effective leadership style that strikes a balance between masculine and feminine behaviours, such as combining assertive agency with communal qualities of kindness, friendliness and helpfulness. As such, leadership continues to promote a hyperagentic individualist ideal, where women are told that we can single-handedly transform ourselves into valued commodities to be sold and traded as ‘leaders’. Meanwhile sexism becomes popularly characterized as an ‘unconscious’ bias that otherwise well-meaning managers can learn to overcome at half-day workshops.

The limitations of this individualism was demonstrated a few years ago when Marissa Mayer was appointed CEO of Yahoo. Six months pregnant at the time, Mayer negotiated for a nursery to be built in her office so that she could balance her caring responsibilities with her work. Although Mayer was able to utilize her wealth and position at the company to her and her family's benefit, she faced intense criticism when eight months into her appointment, she issued a ban against working from home.