POL501 Notes

POL501 Politics Outside the Mainstream Modes of Organizing for Social Change Gender and Politics  Gender as a set of cultural assumptions about what it means to be masculine or feminine o Does not have anything to do with bodies o Refers to cultural characteristics, attributes and values we associate with masculinity and femininity  Dominant/Hegemonic gendering of politics o Masculinity: intellect, hero, assertive, anger, stoic, aggressive, physical strength o Femininity: passive, sensitive, heroine, caring/nurturing, fragile (physically weak and emotionally weak), responsible for others (mothering), tolerance, repress (purity/virgin vs slut/whore)  Qualities of a Political Leader o Achiever, aggressive What are Social Movements?  Formal and Informal politics o Formal: activity that changes power relations through formal political system o Informal: Activity that changes power relations outside formal area  Interest groups v social movements o Interest: members share goals, accept existing power arrangement, work within structures-- want a bigger piece of power pie, lobby government (dominant way politics happens in Canada)  Significant limitations to them: they don't make the final decisions o Social: actors share vision, critique existing power arrangements, struggle through social, political and cultural conflict, challenge existing structures  E.g., Civil Rights Movement The Feminist Movements: The Three /Four Waves  Limitations to the wave system; starts 18th C and centers around white affluent women First Wave (Mid 1880s to 1950s)  Political situation of Women in the West in the 19th C o Doctrine of "coverture"  Woman (white) were not technically persons, legally they were 'dependents' (childlike status) o "Angel in the house" ideology

 Poem that said women should be celebrated because they are mothers, they are angels (the whiteness)  Moral guardian of society  Excluded from politics  Motto of French Revolution (18th C) o "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" o All people are free- free to make decisions for themselves o All people are equal o male brotherhood  Liberal theory and the Public/Private Divide o Patriarchal Power: men rule in the public sphere and the private sphere o Public=Politics=Male o Private="Angel of the house"=women  Not really ruling that sphere  Suffragists o Dominant idea: get the vote (1917, 1919) o Equal rights feminism o Dr. Emily Howard Stowe (1831-1903)  First female doctor  Founder of Toronto Women's Literary guild  Suffragist  Hidden Histories o Influences on first-wave equality feminism:  Indigenous philosophies  Slave women o Sojourner Truth (1797-1893)  Freed slave  Preacher, orator  Key suffragist  Women's Movement in England o Militant Feminism  Dominant mode of suffrage movement o Emmeline (1858-1929), Christabel (188, Pankhurst family o Deeds not words (the motto)  1917 Wartime Elections Act o Vote had little to do with equality  1918 Dominion Elections Act First wave had to make that transition from singular agenda to diverse social issues  Maternal Feminism o Social reform and temperance movements o Women's participation in the public sphere an extension of their role as mother's o White women "mothers of the race" and central to Canada's nation- building project

 Popular culture came back in- "the good house wife" o Not mother, wife.  And then: 1950's, 1960's epidemic of mental illness amongst white, middle class, suburban housewife  Betty Friedan o One of the beginnings of the second wave "spark" o Women of America are depressed not because of biological means but because they've been sold a lie. "Housewife syndrome" o Get the woman into the public sphere. Into employment o Women read it together (book clubs) o Consciousness Beginning of the Second Wave  1950s to 1990s  Women's movement gained momentum out of political and social upheavals (1960s) o Sexual liberation o Civil Rights o LGBTQIA o Black Power o Student o Anti-War  Women a part of all these movements, not the leaders -getting coffee, admin, etc.  Created their own movement. These were politically active women who had experience in these spheres.  Politics outside the mainstream o Social movement o Public-politics/private- "non-political"  "Feminine Mystique"  First wave feminism a challenge to the divide, carving out a space for women in the public sphere. Second Wave  1950s to 1990s  Women's movement gained momentum out of political and cultural upheaval of the 1960s.  Second wave was very heterogenous, brought together many different political ideas i.e., liberal feminism and radical feminism  Canada- dominant kind of feminism were liberal feminists o Led by middle class, educated women o Focused on equal rights: foci was education (university, male dominated profession) o Commitment to formal politics as a way to remedy injustice

o Belief that women can get into formal politics make changes  Mainstream or Institutional feminists: Reforming through the already existing institutions Royal Commission on the Status of Women: 1970  167 recommendations on such matters as equal pay for work of equal value, maternity leave, universal childcare policy, access to birth control and abortions.  First time women are addressed (given a voice) and it allowed to both present their views and meet/network with other women.  Not a radical list: targets public policy  National action committee on the status of women (NAC) o Public face of feminism- lobbying etc. o Unified, national group o Argued it was much easier to speak on behalf of women, universally.  Women's Program- Status of Women Program.  Canada is the first anglo country to get a government dept., bureau devoted to gender equality.  Femocrats. Feminist bureaucrats.  Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section 15 Other Currents in the Second Wave  WLM (Women's Liberation Movement) and Radical Feminism  Cause of women's oppression: Patriarchy. (the root of oppression)  Anti-Statist: disengage from formal political system  Oriented to creating an alternative social and political order.  Participatory democracy  Radical feminist: Patriarchy is structural. Mobility is a privilege men have. o Patriarchy is at the root of all institutions.  Alternative social and political order creating a new spaces (i.e., women's shelters) o Community based activism  Want Egalitarianism  Groups splintered became more and more homogenous  Socialist feminist  Immigrant and Women of colour, queer, etc., always challenging the exclusion Grassroots Women's Movements: Finding Women's voices  Consciousness raising: The Personal is Political o What happens in the private sphere is tied to larger political matters o For radical feminists= separatism  Women's centres: from private troubles to public issues  Wages for housework  Women's health movement (reclaiming women's health and knowledge from men- doctor's) Third Wave Feminism  1990s to 2000s

 Why are Women Underrepresented in Formal Politics o Not feminine enough or too feminine  unconscious bias of masculine/feminine o Newman and white point out that most politicians come from law, business and medicine. Male dominated and autonomous professions. o Networks and resources- but is it democratic if most of us don't work in those fields.  Sylvia Bashevkin, Women Power and Politics, Toronto, Oxford University Press. 2009 o Canadians have a profound unease with women in positions of political authority o She calls this the "women plus power equals discomfort" equation.  Newman & White: Media Representations of Women o Gender-stereotyping o Different types and levels of media coverage  May not be explicit sexist coverage- rather they are not given air time  "Media Frames" in News Coverage (Pippa Norris) o Women represented in media positively can be broken down into three categories o "Breakthroughs"  Come from nowhere- no expectations and then you do it o "Outsiders"  Person positioned outside the mainstream- no connections o "Agents of Change"  Female candidate as someone who will make change once they get in. o Even though these are 'positive', often turned voters against them.  Institutional Barriers o The Higher, The Fewer  More women involved in grassroots organizing, schoolboards, etc. o Parties as Gatekeepers- as institutions o Women as sacrificial candidates in hopeless ridings  Explains why 50% of parties are women but are not elected  Where are they putting them? Are they putting them in winnable ridings?  Women in Parliament o The Parliamentary System: Party Discipline; Power of the Executive; Parliamentary Procedures; Caucuses and Committees (Trimble and Arscott)  Really hard to use the system to make change

 Matters less having women there, then what the party platform is Assignment -Summary of article- doesn't follow the ideas of the article -What is their argument -explain it- use one or two examples -Then analysis/response -Agree or disagree or both Assignment- APA citation Politics inside the Mainstream (Part 2) Outline  History of the welfare state  Neoliberalism and economic restructuring  Case Study: From CAP and CHST  The gendered impact of social assistance restructuring  How have different state forms produced and constrained the kinds of feminist activism are possible?  How effective are insider strategies in achieving feminist demands?  State politics affect " women's material situation, shapes gender relationships, structures political conflict and participation, and contributes to the formation and mobilization of specific identities and interests" (Orloff 1993, p.303) o State structures shape the context of participation in politics* "Philosophy of Governance"  What is the appropriate relationship between the public and private spheres? Between the state, market, and family?"  Public: political, government, state  Private: family, home  Where does the market fall? Laissez-faire State, "Welfare" in Canada (Early 20th C)  1840s to the Great Depression of 1930s  State intervention as last resort o Very small, minimalist state o Strong division between public and private, the former was very small and private very big. Economy/Market fell into the private sphere o The economy and the family were seen as private and therefore outside state intervention o Men already ruling the private sphere  Dominant view of laissez-faire was that capitalist market was private. Capitalism is self-regulating. (Adam Smith, etc.)

 Sickness benefits, 1971  **Investment in Public Sphere  **Regulation of the Market  The public sphere becomes larger  Women really didn't benefit from new policies, reinforced  Welfare State opened up a new vocabulary- what does the government owe citizens? o Brodie argues, the second wave feminist movement took advantage of those sentiments. (i.e., equality) State Feminism  Femocrat- feminists bureaucrats  Gender mainstreaming Second Wave of Women's Movement  Close connection to federal government  SWC  Section 15 of Charter  Court Challenges Program  Brodie- "liberal feminists would not have been successful without the Keynesian welfare state'  What happens when the Keynesian welfare state ceases? Neoliberalism  Elevation of market over public sphere results in: o Tax cuts o Reduce debt o Reduction of public sector o Deregulation of market  All these pillars have gendered implications. o E.g., Tax Cuts: nature of the jobs men vs women occupy. o Reduce Debt: implicit expectation women will do certain things (health help) that are no longer public  Public sector is where women have made the most stride o Deregulation of the market: pay equity  Making up for cuts o Who moves in to fill the void left by elimination of government services? o Non-profits (food banks, charities) o Privatization Case Study: From the Welfare State to Neoliberalism  BNA Act- Division of Powers  Canada Assistance Plan 1966 o Set universal welfare amounts o Provided unlimited cost-shared federal funding for welfare

o Promised to eradicate many of the punitive features of earlier welfare policies o View of recipients as having rights o Prohibited workfare  Changes to the Welfare State, Post 1995 o Federal: Canada assistance Plan (CAP) replaced by Canada Health and Social transfer CHST, 1996 o Ontario: Ontario Works Act ('workfare') and Ontario Disability Support Group o Ontario: Harris cut welfare by 21.6%; 3% raise under McGuinty  Canada Health and Social Transfer o No national standards in welfare o No guaranteed funding; jurisdiction of provinces (with regards to amount, eligibility criteria; funds can be diverted by the provinces from social assistance, into other programs) o Reintroduction of workfare  Welfare Rates in Toronto (2019) o Single person with child o Basic needs: 360 per month o Shelter allowance: 642 o Average rent 1089  Increase quality of representative- diff., experiences.  Increase representation: it's fair, why not?  You only want mirror representation IF the politician works with the mandate. They have to work on behalf of the group they come from otherwise it won't work  T&A: elect women for numbers regardless of their party stripe Discussion Questions 1. Why are single mothers living in poverty? What have been the effects of welfare reform on the lives of single mothers? 2. How is current welfare policy gendered? In other words, how does it produce and reinforce particular ideas about the appropriate attributes and roles of men and women? You might consider the following elements of the policy: the relationship between workfare and children; the "spouse in the house" rule. 3. Is welfare fraud a real problem? Why has the government attempted to police "welfare fraud"? 4. In what ways are the welfare reform policies analyzed by Little example of neoliberal state restructuring (see Brodie's definition of neoliberalism)? Theoretical Perspectives 1. Varieties of feminist theorizing 2. Liberal, Radical, and Social Feminists 3. Who is the "subject" of feminism? Post-modern feminism and the "third wave"

"Women's Oppression at the root of Other Forms of Oppression"  Women were, historically, the first oppressed group  Women's oppression is o The most widespread and exists in every society o The hardest form of oppression to eradicate o Causes the most suffering to its victims o Provides a conceptual model for understanding other forms of oppression Places of Oppression  State: or gov., is the key site of women's oppression: creates the laws, etc.  Sexuality: Radical feminists politicize the private. Sphere of sexuality and mothering is intensely political. Pornography and sex work is the most evident example.  Reproduction/Mothering: radicals saw the return of midwife traditions, control over their own bodies. Strategies for Change:  Idea of separatism  Celebrating womanhood- re-privilege womanhood o Not emulating masculine traits. Liberal 3 pillars of liberalism, fundamental unit of freedom was individuals Focused not on oppression but inequalities, the goal is to get more women into the public sphere. Cause of gender inequality is social. Rad What makes radical feminism radical? the root of women oppression is patriarchy. a deep structure of power, you have to change the system. It's not just a system where men control women, it's a system where women internalize patriarchal values. Women's oppression at the root of all other forms of oppression. SF Theoretical Perspectives (Continued) Overview  Socialist Feminisms  Who is the "subject" of feminism? Post-modern feminism and queer feminisms  Argumentative Essay  Letter to the Editor- check your Turnitin submission this afternoon for grade and feedback Liberal Radical Focuses on individual inequalities, that women experience in the public sphere. Oppression

-inequality access -inequality rights -inequalities of opportunity Solution is to get more women into the public sphere, into office and to challenge the biases, stereotypes and individual beliefs that keep women out Election Day -Where are the women? -Where/when are gender issues discussed? Socialist Feminism  Has always been part of feminist movement but had a different trajectory  Focused on work related issues- not so much voting rights  One of the key perspectives on debates on politics of the family, sex work and work gaps  Like liberal feminism it is a critique and extension of Marxism's critique of class society. What is Marxism  Not the implementation, but the philosophical tradition  Marx was unique because he took issue with liberalism. He began as a critique of liberal thinking. o Liberal thinking is interested in individuals and inequality  Marx was interested in collectives o What makes us human is that we engage in human conscious labour- we need to create and remake things and ourselves. Planning.  Modes of Production o Interested in what happens in human history when society's start organizing according to a division of labour. o Class is that division of labour. Between intellectual labour and manual labour. o Argues we all have the capacity to do both. o Class inequalities start to happen when one group never engages in physical labour but controls the process. o The most explicit example of this is in slavery.  What happens to class divisions under capitalism?  Class divisions under capitalism- difference between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.  Exploitation o The word he gives for what we would call profit. o Profit is the difference between what a worker is paid to produce something and what that object sells for on the market. o Exploitation is central to capitalism- workers are never paid for what they actually make.

 Outline o Sisterhood o Theorizing Diversity  The body  The State o Transforming power, Sisterhood, and Solidarity? Sisterhood  Bellhook critiques this idea.  Part of identity politics- people's marginalized identities provide them with a unique perspective.  Claiming the marginalized identity of woman, and women's shared experiences of sexist oppression, as the basis of feminist politics  Why is sisterhood an important political strategy? o Allows for a new type of knowing, allows a new type of knowledge to emerge. o Promised the vision of a united front against patriarchy  Sense of commonality o Creates the idea of social support o Empowering people to take control of their own identities. Critiques of Sisterhood (hooks)  According to hooks, what are the limitations of the visions of sisterhood advanced by liberal and radical feminists? o Common Oppression  Over generalization  Misses the fact that women don't just experience sexism. Multiple types of oppression that interlock and intersect.  Men v women- homogenizing  Not looking at the differences within those categories. o Bonding over victimization  Conceal power imbalance/power of white women  Not addressing racism, class inequalities that divide women  The only proper subject of feminism= victim  People who are not victims - excluded  Hides women own power to make change  Dominant view in Western culture is that power comes from domination, that one person either uses physical or other forms of control over other people. This is a patriarchal definition. o Liberal feminists are really seeking not to be a victim instead becoming the victimizer.  White affluent women are also the ones who claim leadership in women's movement.

 Critiques of leadership- learn from leadership of women of colour  "Host-guest model" o Even the language of inclusion is...problematic Theorizing Diversity  Intersectionality: "The concept of political intersectionality highlights the fact that women of colour are situated within at least two subordinated groups that frequently pursue conflicting political agendas."  Matrix of Domination (Patricia Hill Collins) o Interlocking systems of privilege and oppression o We are all simultaneously privileged and oppressed o Once you start to draw on all of this, you can see that almost all of us have some sort of privilege o Significance: Moves away from the idea of there ever being a 'true' victim. Challenges the idea of hierarchies of oppression.  Bellhook's pg. 53-54 Lecture Part II Indigenous  BNA act, 1867  Indian Act o Put into law who would count as 'Indian' o Defined who was legally Indian, which had enormous implications. Not able to define themselves, government power over their statues. Regulating identity. o Defined limits to status. Limit to status meant if Indigenous but had Canadian Uni education lost status, priest lost status. Doctrine of assimilation- doing 'white' things loses status. o What determined women's status:  Defined through marriage. Marrying someone without status meant losing their own status and vice versa. Patriarchal.  Expelling large amounts of women from status. "Policy of genocide". Cultural through discrimination.  A way for Canadian gov., to change Indigenous society. Matrilineal not Matriarchal, more egalitarian.  Imposed western gendered systems on societies that were different.  "Legal death" The Politics of Feminist Diversity: Transgender and Trans-Feminist Politics Recap and Essay  Not a comparative essay, look at how both of them expanded on what feminism means, what is the significance of that expansion.

MacDonald  Argues that feminist political science over the last decade has broadened to look at gender and politics o Gender involves much more than women and women's lives. o How gender itself works as a political structure and a political system. How masculinities and femininities inform and reinforce our political policies and structures  Focus primarily in how trans theory has influenced the field and the imp innovations it offers to rethinking gender and politics.  Trans : "An umbrella term used to refer to all individuals who live outside the normative sex/gender relations- that is, individuals whose gendered self- presentation (evidenced through dress, mannerisms, and even physiology) does not correspond to the behaviors habitually associated with the members of their biological sex" (Namaste in MacDonald 2017, p. 42) o Not only is gender something we construct, sex too is something we create culturally through habits (of though, medicine, etc.) Serano  Trans feminism broadens intersectionality in feminism and challenges the sex/gender binary  Who is the "woman" at the heart of feminism? o Has been historically defined, changed, are not static. o Fundamentally questioning of that category o Idea of womanhood did not come into critical scrutiny until trans.  While feminists have sought to contest the meaning of what it is to be a woman, trans politics is often about how "the categories of, and the boundary between, male and female, or masculine and feminine, are set at all" (Eleanor MacDonald, 2005, p.287). o Feminism that does not take into account trans experiences fails to really address that gender binary The Sex/Gender System as a Political System  Serano: Trans scholarship and politics shows that the sex/gender system is a political system. o Not about being left out. Taking into account is that the sex/gender system is a political structure. (ability to control, define, regulate, etc.)  Sex: the categories of male and female; the biological characteristics and properties of bodies placed in these categories. o Sex, our sexed bodies, are not natural. Something that has been created. Even the category of male and female (Western culture is a new idea). Prior to 1700s, western science believed that there was only one sex.  One sex model

o Fundamental principle was that all bodies were made up of same material. The difference was that female genitalia and reproductive system were the inverse of male reproductive systems.  Uterus and ovaries the inverse of penis and testes o Dominant model has become two sexes, came into being in large part to justify women's exclusion in the public sphere. (Thomas Le Cour) o Historical records that match that bodies do not match sex definition e.g., intersex.  Experiences been erased and hidden  Other societies, like Indigenous, celebrated these people. o Sex is something that has been created. Does not account for the great diversity of sexed bodies.  Gender: the assignment of masculine and feminine characteristics to bodies in cultural contexts  Sexuality: sexual desire/attraction The Western Sex/Gender Binary System  Only 2 sexes, only 2 genders o Dominant model/Normative model  Sex body aligns with gender expression o Biology=Destiny  Sex=Gender=Sexuality  Serano o Cisnormativity: the expansion that all people are- and should be- cisgender, or non-trans. o "early trans feminists forwarded the gender-binary- being non- consensually assigned a female or male sex at birth- as a way to describe the myriad forms of sexism in our society. Those assigned a male sex are expected to grow up to identify as a man, to be masculine in gender expression and be exclusively attracted to women; those assigned a female sex are expected to grow up to identify as a woman, be feminine in gender expression and be exclusively attracted to men."  Gender assignment o When are girls and boys made? o Who gets to decide our gender identity?  System of classification that sorts bodies into two categories: male and female/masculine and feminine  Set of gender roles and expectations  Set of learned behaviours, mannerisms, and dress  System of regulation upheld through regimes of violence and discrimination.  Reward system for those who conform  How do transgender identities challenge the sex/gender/sexuality binary? o What if we had a society that celebrated the diversity of sex and gender o Bodies can change