{"id":269475,"date":"2020-09-22T05:13:11","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T09:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=269475"},"modified":"2020-09-22T05:13:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T09:13:11","slug":"will-chrystia-freeland-lead-a-feminist-post-coronavirus-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/22\/will-chrystia-freeland-lead-a-feminist-post-coronavirus-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Chrystia Freeland lead a feminist post-coronavirus recovery?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Freeland was appointed finance minister in August 2020 after Bill Morneau\u2019s swift departure, marking the first time in Canadian history that a woman has landed the job. (File photo<\/a>: Chrystia Freeland\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With Chrystia Freeland now holding the reins of the ministry of finance and Canada\u2019s post-pandemic recovery plan, it\u2019s time to ask whether the first woman \u2014 and feminist \u2014 to lead the portfolio will push for significant advances for gender equality.<\/p>\n

Freeland was appointed finance minister in August 2020 after Bill Morneau\u2019s swift departure<\/a>, marking the first time in Canadian history that a woman has landed the job. The daughter of a feminist activist<\/a> from northern Alberta, Freeland is also an avowed feminist<\/a> herself \u2014 and so is her boss, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n

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In her past role as foreign affairs and international trade minister, Freeland supported feminist policies like Canada\u2019s Feminist International Assistance Policy<\/a>. She has now envisioned a \u201cgreen and equitable<\/a>\u201d recovery to a crisis that has disproportionately affected women<\/a>, signalling that she might push for advances to gender equality.<\/p>\n

But there are reasons to be skeptical.<\/p>\n

Trudeau\u2019s feminism questioned<\/h2>\n

Freeland will be working closely with Trudeau, whose own feminist credentials are increasingly under scrutiny. During his first campaign as Liberal leader, Trudeau touted his feminism proudly \u2014 remember \u201cBecause it\u2019s 2015\u201d? \u2014 only to bury the topic during his bid for re-election last year.<\/p>\n

That may have been due to the departures<\/a> of star cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, which sparked a conversation<\/a> about Trudeau\u2019s feminism.<\/p>\n

Several times, it has been noted that the prime minister\u2019s use of progressive language does not reflect his government\u2019s actions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nRead more:
\nTrudeau’s response to the SNC-Lavalin affair shows structural misogyny in action<\/a>
\n<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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We recently published a study<\/a> based on an analysis of three years of official speeches by the prime minister and found that Trudeau rarely spoke from a feminist standpoint: gender equality and mentions of women\u2019s rights were largely contained and limited by the discourse of economic prosperity.<\/p>\n

Overall, we found that Trudeau\u2019s understanding of feminism appears to align with \u201cneoliberal feminism<\/a>,\u201d a form of feminism that focuses primarily on women\u2019s economic empowerment as a means to achieve gender equality.<\/p>\n

Neoliberalism is mostly marked by trade liberalization, deregulation and privatization of government services. It emphasizes economic prosperity as the ultimate measure of success, treating individuals as taxpayers or service users, rather than citizens.<\/p>\n

Our paper highlights at least three ways in which neoliberal feminism is problematic. These may be relevant in questioning Freeland\u2019s own feminist stance.<\/p>\n

Structural barriers ignored<\/h2>\n

First, neoliberal feminism is based on the notion that individual empowerment is the highest form of citizenship. And so neoliberal feminists propose that as long as women have the same access to economic empowerment as men, they should be able to achieve full equality.<\/p>\n

This view allows society to ignore the need to address deep structural barriers to substantive equality such as discrimination on the basis of race, ability, nationality and so on.<\/p>\n

Second, the idea that women are best emancipated through economic empowerment tends to speak only to a certain group of them: The famous book Lean In<\/em><\/a>, by Facebook\u2019s Sheryl Sandberg, might have been well-received by privileged women and those climbing corporate ladders across the globe, but women in lower socio-economic ranks simply don\u2019t have access to this type of individualist pursuit of success.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, no amount of leaning in would help most women of colour, transgendered persons, undocumented migrants or so many others overcome the very real barriers that they face in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Finally, the type of casual approach that accompanies neoliberal feminism tends to gender-neutralize issues that are very much about gender, such as child care.<\/p>\n

Overall, gender-neutralization works in much the same way as colour-blindness has worked when addressing questions of race and justice (in other words, not well<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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\n
\nRead more:
\nWhen it comes to race and justice, ‘colour-blindness’ is not good enough<\/a>
\n<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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Women become invisible<\/h2>\n

Neoliberalism has turned childcare into a question of children\u2019s rights and success while ignoring its importance for women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another example of gender-neutralization is violence against Indigenous women and girls. To Trudeau\u2019s credit, our study did find that he tends to address this issue head on.<\/p>\n

Studies have found<\/a> that if women-specific issues are not tackled as such, then women become invisible in policy-making.<\/p>\n

There is no question that the Trudeau government has made efforts to bring a feminist lens to various files. The prime minister\u2019s commitment to appointing women to important positions has had a positive effect<\/a>; major policies have taken feminism into account, particularly in foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

But Canada\u2019s Feminist International Assistance Policy, which both Trudeau and Freeland support, uses feminism as a conduit for economic ends rather than considering gender equality an end on its own.<\/p>\n

This type of framework is gaining strength. Championed by global organizations like the World Bank, it proposes that women\u2019s empowerment makes \u201cgood business sense<\/a>\u201d for countries. The problem is that, in this view, women end up as little more than a resource in the toolbox for economic prosperity. Our study confirms this point.<\/p>\n

How, and how often, Freeland will apply her view of feminism in her new role remains to be seen. As the finance minister of a G7 nation, Freeland has entered a club of political leaders<\/a> whose entire world view has been shaped by neoliberalism.<\/p>\n

But if she wants a truly equitable recovery, Freeland will have to find a way out of this neoliberal straitjacket.\"The<\/p>\n

Gabriela Perdomo<\/a>, PhD Candidate, Department of Communication, L\u2019Universit\u00e9 d\u2019Ottawa\/University of Ottawa<\/a><\/em> and Pascale Dangoisse<\/a>, PhD candidate, Department of Communication, L\u2019Universit\u00e9 d\u2019Ottawa\/University of Ottawa<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Chrystia Freeland now holding the reins of the ministry of finance and Canada\u2019s post-pandemic recovery plan, it\u2019s time to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":269477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-gabriela-perdomo-phd-candidate-department-of-communication-luniversite-dottawa-university-of-ottawa","mauthors-pascale-dangoisse-phd-candidate-department-of-communication-luniversite-dottawa-university-of-ottawa","mauthors-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269478,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269475\/revisions\/269478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}