Digital feminist labour: the immaterial, aspirational and affective labour of feminist activists and fempreneurs

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through interviews with over fifty feminist activists, this article explores and documents the intersections between gender, labour, and technology across a range of contemporary western digital feminist campaigns or initiatives such as SlutWalk, Hollaback!, Everyday Sexism, and feminist publications such as Feminist Times, Feminist Current, The Vagenda and The F-Word. In addition to outlining the ways digital feminist labour, carried out predominantly by women, is precarious, immaterial, aspirational, and affective, this article traces the ways enterprising feminists—or ‘fempreneurs’—have in turn harnessed digital technologies to creatively make money or earn a living from their activism. These activities range from developing writing, copyediting or design skills, engaging in various forms of craftivism, developing feminist training courses, to organising large-scale feminist events and festivals. The research thus demonstrates how feminists are adapting to neoliberal conditions to sustain themselves—and their activism—despite and in response to their precarious positions, while simultaneously raising questions about the sustainability and potentially the ethics of their labour.