Mobilizing feminism: a feminist policy analysis of Canada’s commitment to the women, peace and security agenda

The purpose of this thesis is to understand how feminism is mobilized in Canada’s commitment to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. It also aims to assess whether Canada’s commitment to WPS reproduces or challenges race, gender, and sexuality norms globally, and if it is influenced by hegemonic masculine and heteropatriarchal norms in international relations. To do so, I conducted a feminist critical discourse analysis using a set of questions adapted from Beverly A. McPhail’s (2003) Feminist Policy Analysis Framework. More specifically, I analyzed how feminism is mobilized in three policy documents–Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2017-2022; Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) Action Area Six: Peace and Security; Canada’s Defence Policy Strong, Secure, Engaged; and the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. Through this analysis, I found that Canada’s commitment reflects a neoliberal feminist framework that promotes the empowerment of women and girls as a means for improved economic development and stable peace processes. While it does display a kind of feminism, it does not utilize a transformative approach that feminist theorists have theorized and recommended, which I also endorse in this thesis. I conclude by suggesting that the Government of Canada should work towards integrating the recommendations of feminist scholars to include gender perspectives in policymaking that encourage a more intersectional feminist approach.