Emancipation as Moral Regulation: Latin American Feminisms and Neoliberalism

Abstract

The article argues that feminist emancipation, understood as practices and discourses of self‐development and of solidarity as empowerment, has become entangled with the neoliberal project. Indeed, emancipation as self‐improvement has become synonymous with moral regulation projects that seek to adapt women to global capitalism. The article explores the relation between emancipation and neoliberal regulation from a situated approach by addressing the experience of Latin American feminisms, with a particular focus on Chile. This approach recognizes by implication that Latin American feminisms are co‐extensive, or coeval, with North American and European ones, and are not merely derivative forms.