Julia Schuster, Doris Weichselbaumer,
""Just take it off, where's the problem?" How online commenters draw on neoliberal rationality to justify labour market discrimination against women wearing headscarves"
, in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 45, Nummer 11, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Seite(n) 2157-2178, 2022, ISSN: 1466-4356
Original Titel:
"Just take it off, where's the problem?" How online commenters draw on neoliberal rationality to justify labour market discrimination against women wearing headscarves
Sprache des Titels:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
In this article we demonstrate how online commenters apply neoliberal
rationality to defend the labour market exclusion of Muslim women wearing
headscarves. Applying a thematic analysis, we identify the arguments of a
debate in an online forum that discussed job market difficulties of Muslim
women wearing headscarves. These arguments did not acknowledge the
existence of discrimination but blamed the women for not adapting to the
labour market. They supported an unregulated freedom for employers in
their hiring-choices and argued that the employment of women wearing
headscarves was harmful to firms? profits, e.g. because these women would
scare away customers, or because they were deemed less productive. Thus,
online commenters prioritized employer?s interests over democratic values
such as religious freedom. We use the concept of neoliberal rationality by
Wendy Brown to explain our findings and to show how neoliberal values are
used to rationalize the mistreatment of a marginalized group.
Forschungs-