(Re)Imagining Motherhood Among Young Women: Between Neoliberal Subjection and Feminist Emancipation in a Familistic Context

Abstract This article examines how neoliberal subjectivity has been established in young women who are activists in feminist spaces and social reproduction struggles in Barcelona. Based on interviews with 19 white, cisgender, non-mother women—highly educated but living in precarious conditions—who actively participate in these movements, the study explores how neoliberal logic shapes their perceptions of motherhood. Neoliberal subjectivity, understood as a cost-benefit calculation prioritizing self-optimization, pressures women to balance motherhood and careers as individual responsibilities without state support. This logic often influences middle- or upper-class women aligned with neoliberal feminism. However, our findings reveal that participants frequently reject traditional maternity or consider remaining childless rather than adopting the neoliberal multifaceted woman model. Three factors limit neoliberal subjectivity’s influence: precarious living conditions in a familistic culture raise doubts about meeting socially accepted reproductive standards; feminist ideology no longer views motherhood as essential, enabling resistance to conservative, family-centered state norms; and the everyday forms of resistance that challenge dominant neoliberal and patriarchal norms. This study adds to Foucauldian perspectives by integrating materialist feminist insights and contributes to understanding Spain's low fertility rates. The findings imply rethinking therapeutic approaches, structural policies, feminist discourses, and methodologies for understanding contemporary reproductive decisions shaped by socioeconomic conditions rather than individual preferences alone.