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Gender Mainstreaming in Canadian Human Security Policy: The Limitations of Bureaucratic and Security Discourses
(2008) Ali, Shelina; Fitzsimmons, Scott; McDougall, Alex
The purpose of this study is to assess how feminist literature on bureaucratic discourse and human security can contribute to a greater understanding of the challenges of gender mainstreaming within policy on human security and conflict management. My particular focus on gender is linked to the reality that gender power relations are consistently present within all societies internationally, most often resulting in the subordination of femininity and by consequence, women. Feminist critiques of the bureaucracy make a strong argument for why there is such difficulty in establishing a gendered security policy, by addressing the gender biased nature of bureaucratic structure, knowledge, and discourse. Through the analysis I hope to shed light on the barriers and access points available within the Canadian bureaucracy in terms of gender mainstreaming in human security policy. Past studies have focused on what gendered aspect of conflict and security policy have ignored, but not why they have ignored these aspects. This paper will attempt to further uncover the why, and what feminist theory can contribute towards understanding the difficulty of gender mainstreaming in Canadian human security policy.