On 30th April 2025, WRC hosted the next session in our Critical Conversations series with guest speaker Baljit Banga, CEO of Hibiscus, to examine the impacts of neoliberalism on women's rights, equality, and the sustainability of feminist organising.

Drawing on decades of experience supporting minoritised migrant women, Baljit unpacked how neoliberal systems, rooted in market-driven logic, competition, and efficiency, are eroding the core values and practices of feminist work. Through funding cuts, competitive commissioning, and conditional support, neoliberalism has systematically under-resourced the women’s sector while demanding ever more from it.

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The Marketplace of Misogyny

Participants explored how the commodification of women’s services has reshaped the sector. Organisations are being pushed to function like businesses; chasing short-term grants, meeting burdensome monitoring requirements, and innovating for innovation’s sake. What once were spaces of care and collective power are increasingly governed by transactional relationships, risk management models, and patriarchal metrics of “success.”

Baljit introduced two starkly different funding models: one rooted in trust, long-term investment, and alignment with feminist missions, and the other—a familiar reality—characterised by competition, precarity, and control. Shockingly, the far right enjoys the former. Their funders provide multi-million-pound, multi-decade grants without micromanagement, allowing them to embed and advance their regressive agendas with stability and strategy. Meanwhile, social justice organisations are expected to deliver “systemic change” on £5,000 in twelve months.

Neoliberalism Is Not Neutral

Baljit urged us to name neoliberalism for what it is: not a neutral economic system, but a mechanism of control that upholds racism, sexism, and class inequality. It doesn’t just exclude; it actively reproduces disadvantage, particularly for Black and minoritised, migrant, and disabled women. The push for “generic” services and technocratic responses to deeply human issues further marginalises those most impacted by systemic violence.

Even language has shifted. “Clients”, not survivors. “Services”, not solidarity. “Impact”, not transformation.

Reclaiming Movement, Rebuilding Resistance

What emerged from the session was a shared recognition that the women's sector is being depoliticised, professionalised, and disempowered. But it was also a space of hope. Participants spoke of a deep desire to return to movement-building, not as a nostalgic idea, but as a radical and necessary strategy.

There was discussion of alternatives: solidarity economies, co-operative models, feminist philanthropy, and technological tools to reconnect and organise. Above all, there was a call to stop adapting to a broken system and start imagining and resourcing our own.

Key Takeaways

1. Neoliberalism is eroding feminist work.
2. The far-right is better funded than feminist movements.
3. Not all women experience neoliberalism equally.
4. Language reflects the shift from solidarity to service delivery.
5. Neoliberalism and racism are interconnected.
6. We need revolutionary, not just radical, responses.
7. Neoliberal funding demands silence and collusion.
8. “Innovation” is being co-opted to justify exclusion.
9. Mental health challenges and burnout in the sector are systemic.
10. Women’s economic power is being actively suppressed.

WRC’s Critical Conversations create the space for truth-telling, collective learning, and strategy development. We thank Baljit Banga and all the participants for sharing so generously and for bringing courage, clarity, and conviction to this discussion.

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