A TRIUMPH FOR CORPORATE FEMINISM!

Julie Anne Genter will no doubt be breaking out the champagne to celebrate that, as of January 1, women are in charge of America's industrial military complex...

 I'M SURE that Julie Anne Genter will be cheering the news that, for the first time, women are now in charge of the American military-industrial complex. As of Jan. 1, the CEOs of four of America's five biggest defence contractors — Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and the defence arm of Boeing — are now women.

Given her declared support for corporate feminism, the Minister for Women will surely agree with the American female CEO's surveyed by Politico, that "having more women at the top affects companies and defence agencies in ways large and small — from questioning stale assumptions about the smartest way to develop weapons and provide services for the military; to negotiating better deals for the taxpayers when buying airplanes, tanks, rockets and ships.'

Julie Anne Genter's feminism is the feminism of the one percent.

No doubt Genter will be tweeting to declare that having more women at the very top of the American military machine can only good for women in general because it strikes a blow for gender equality. After all it was Genter who recently declared that "more women in leadership means better decision making, better organisational resilience and better performance." 

What a triumph for Genter's brand of feminism that women are now negotiating 'better deals' for weapons that are killing other women (and men and children) in war zones all around the world.

But, of course, what Genter advocates isn't really feminism - not if you think that feminism should be about equality and liberation for all women and not just some. Genter's corporate feminism is the feminism of the one percent. Genter's trickle-down feminism depends on the benevolence and gender politics of those who make it to the top. It is not about taking collective action or building collective power for change. It never dares to question the political and economic status quo.

Unfortunately Genter smugly assumes that she speaks for all women when, obviously, she so clearly doesn't.