Navigating the Labour Market: Women Job Seekers’ Mobilisation of a Postfeminist Sensibility

Ruth Abrams, Deborah Brewis and Miguel Imas
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Ruth Abrams: University of Surrey, UK
Deborah Brewis: University of Bath, UK
Miguel Imas: Kingston University, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2025, vol. 39, issue 1, 3-23

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: gender; job seeking; postfeminism; qualitative; work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:39:y:2025:i:1:p:3-23

DOI: 10.1177/09500170241262872

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