?Just take it off, where?s the problem?? The neoliberal logic of intersectional labour market discrimination against women wearing headscarves
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
14th Conference of the European Sociological Association
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
Muslim women wearing headscarves who are seeking employment in western labour markets face intersectional discrimination based on gender and religion. This intersectional dynamic not only leads to decreased chances of finding a job, it also implies that the women?s experiences of discrimination are not acknowledged as such but rather explained as their own fault. This presentation is based on a qualitative thematic content analysis of 600 online comments posted in response to an Austrian online news article that reported scientific evidence of labour market discrimination against women wearing headscarves. The analysis examines how the commenters articulate explanations for the women?s labour market problems and solutions to them. By identifying the main narratives within those comments, We argue that neoliberal understandings of employers? and employees? individual choices are used to legitimise discriminatory practices. This strategy enables commenters to avoid openly islamophobic and/or sexist arguments as they approve the practice of not hiring women wearing headscarves. While intersectionality theory, in particular Kimberlé Crenshaw?s approach, helps identifying how this discrimination of Muslim women wearing headscarves is erased from the discourse as a problem that requires political attention, a feminist critique of neoliberal labour market logics needs to be included in the analysis in order to explain why this erasure is successful.