Premium
Technocracy or transformation? Mapping women's policy agencies and orienting gender (in)equality in the Canadian provinces
Author(s) -
Paterson Stephanie,
Marier Patrik,
Chu Felix
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
canadian public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.361
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1754-7121
pISSN - 0008-4840
DOI - 10.1111/capa.12178
Subject(s) - technocracy , gender equality , transformative learning , politics , bureaucracy , citizen journalism , political science , gender studies , public administration , sociology , law , pedagogy
Canadian gender equality policy has taken a “technocratic turn” that favours bureaucratic expertise to monitor and measure (in)equality rather than participatory and consultative mechanisms. While the processes and impacts of this shift are well documented at the federal level, less is known at the provincial level. This article takes stock of provincial gender equality mechanisms, demonstrating variations in women's policy agencies (WPAs) across the ten provinces. It then links these variations to the discursive politics of gender equality within each province. We demonstrate that the potential for transformative orientations of gender equality emerges in WPAs with broad consultative mechanisms.