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Feminist scholarship on gender and militarization reveals how militaries rely on the commitments and contributions of military spouses on the basis of essential gender norms and exploitative gender relations. Strategies to secure these contributions and power dynamics shift in response to political, social and cultural pressures and require feminist interrogation if they are to be undone. Thus, this paper asks, how is the Canadian military securing and exploiting the labour and loyalty of military spouses in support of operational effectiveness? Based on original interview data with spouses and an analysis of military family support initiatives and programmes, I argue that neoliberal logics are combining with militarization to secure and deepen the gendered expectations of military spouses by the state. Through neoliberal logics of individual responsibility, flexibility and resourcefulness, military spouses are told that they can be successful and assure their wellbeing by enhancing their ability to adapt, survive, and thrive military life. This differs from other strategies of militarization, which appeal to patriotism and devotion to one’s husband. In particular, state initiatives of support in resilience and entrepreneurialism – qualities of neoliberal citizenship – combine to generate as ideal the proactive military spouse, who invests in her capacity to adhere to the gendered requirement of military life, and sees this as a means to ensure her wellbeing. The neoliberal logics upon which contemporary processes of militarization are taking place encourage and require that military spouses create the conditions that enable them to better perform feminized practices of labour in support of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Resilient and entrepreneurial military spouses: neoliberalization meets militarization