Navigating the Labour Market: Women Job Seekers’ Mobilisation of a Postfeminist Sensibility
通过对38名英国女性求职者的六个月访谈，研究发现她们在求职中经历着赋权与失权之间的摇摆，包括寻找合适工作与接受任何工作、展现真实自我与模仿雇主期望等矛盾，揭示了后女权主义不稳定性从求职开始就存在。
Job seeking is a crucial yet overlooked process through which people navigate the world of work. Yet there remains limited qualitative research examining the complex and nuanced experiences of job seekers in a contemporary labour market. This article explores 38 interviews with job-seeking women in England, all of whom were interviewed over a six-month period. Using a postfeminist sensibility, findings revealed an oscillation between empowerment and success on the one hand, and disempowerment and perceived failure on the other, including wanting to: find the ‘right’ job, but accept any job; convey an authentic self but imitate what they think employers want; negotiate salaries, but accept pay cuts; emulate ‘successful’ behaviours, but experience doubt, uncertainty and negativity. This article contributes to the sociological practice of employment, identifying that through this oscillation, women experience a form of postfeminist precarity that starts from the outset of job seeking.