Hop to it in the gig economy: The sharing economy and neo-liberal feminism

This article examines two major sharing economy companies, Uber and TaskRabbit, describing how they comprise virtual work and articulate gendered relations through their promotional discourse and initiatives. By encouraging the empowering benefits of labour flexibility and entrepreneurialism for women, these companies exemplify a type of neo-liberal feminism, which endorses individualization and market-based solutions to employment. Given the contingent working conditions resident in the sharing economy, a more apt descriptor is the ‘gig economy’. The article also examines policy aspects of the sharing economy, including legal debates about worker status and platform discrimination.