Maternity Leave as Upskilling: A Danish (Neoliberal) Feminist Movement on LinkedIn?

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Denmark, parental leave in relation to childbirth has long been a political hot topic. This study adds a new perspective to this issue by examining a newly emergent LinkedIn discourse which we call “maternity leave as upskilling.” It presents maternity leave as an opportunity to strengthen women’s professional competences. Denmark has seen no noteworthy organic balancing of available leave days between parents, and Danish politicians have long been reluctant to implement earmarked paternity leave. The “upskilling” discourse may therefore constitute a way for working mothers to challenge the hitherto dominant “maternity leave as a gap in the CV” view by aiming to revalue care work as professionally relevant by engaging “neoliberal feminist” language of self-optimization and the capitalization off of personal relationships—here childcare. The women’s use of LinkedIn fits neatly with neoliberal feminism’s individualization of the “feminist” agenda. This way, the “upskilling” discourse simultaneously transcends the private-public divide, by introducing market metrics, entrepreneurialism, and managerialist lingo into care work, and rearticulates it anew because, through the supposed uniqueness of the skills achieved during maternity leave, motherhood becomes required for women’s career success.