Postfeminism and intersectionality in the digital communication of the Brazilian brands

Abstract

Postfeminism is a neoliberal discursive formation that has characterized contemporary cultural products and propagated a highly conservative mode of empowerment that undermines feminist causes. Research has shown that postfeminism obscures the causes of gender inequality and how they overlap with other categories of oppression that intersectional feminism has sought to address. Although advertising is a recurrent object of study in feminist research focused on this issue, institutional communication is still little studied in this regard. To identify dimensions of this phenomenon, in this study we examine, from a qualitatively oriented content analysis, the digital communication conducted by Brazilian brands on their LinkedIn pages on International Women’s Day. The results are unpromising, as they account for the dominance of post-feminism in corporate rhetoric. We discuss them showing, through a case study, how organizational communication can also contribute to the intersectional feminism agenda.