The article describes the rise of neoliberal feminism and also its political and social ramifications. Through an examination of the discursive aspects of the feminist manifesto Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, the bestseller written by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, I argue that one can obtain various insights regarding the ways in which traditional liberalism is enlisted today to create neoliberal feminism and a new feminist subject. The feminist subject takes upon itself the full responsibility for its wellbeing through self-care, which relies on the creation of a happy balance between work and family, a balance that relies on a constant cost–benefit calculation. Whereas it is argued that this new feminism can be understood as yet another area in which neoliberalism has made inroads by creating its own version of the original, I propose that at the same time it also serves a very specific cultural purpose: It removes liberal feminism’s potential for exposing and challenging the foundational contradictions of liberal democracy and thus strengthens the neoliberal rationale even more.
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