Feminist resistance and the politics of academic publishing

This article reflects on the mass walkout from the Wiley journal Gender, Work and Organization in Spring 2024, propelled by the appointment process for three new Editors-in-Chief. Following this process – which we experienced as deeply flawed and non-transparent – and the wider mainstreaming of the journal, the authors coordinated a resignation letter which attracted 572 signatories. We place this walkout as a feminist act of resistance in the context of increasingly masculinist, neoliberal, and profit-driven publishing practices, which rely on the free labour of academics across the globe while ignoring the same academics in any significant decisions. Drawing on extant feminist understandings of resistance, the article ends with an invitation to action for all those who can publicly denounce corporate publishers’ profit-driven efforts to dominate academic freedom and voice. It is also a call to stand against the watering down and erasure of feminist theory and praxis in journals.