This blog post will focus on an event I attended (virtually, of course) on October 8, 2020. As a Canadian female with an educational background and avid interest in foreign policy, my attention was immediately drawn to this event, aptly named “Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy: Past, Present, Future”.
I recognize that not everyone reading this blog post is familiar with Canada’s foreign policies and instruments, so I will provide a brief background before I share my key takeaways following the webinar.
BACKGROUND
In the summer of 2017, Canada introduced its “Feminist International Assistance Policy” and began to refer to its foreign policy as ‘feminist’. The scope was to “promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as the most effective way to reduce extreme poverty and build a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world”.
After the federal election of 2019 and Justin Trudeau’s shuffle of Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) champion Chrystia Freeland out of foreign affairs, many wondered if the concept of a feminist foreign policy had any lasting power. Nonetheless, in a speech given in February 2020, new minister François-Philippe Champagne promised a white paper on Canada’s feminist foreign policy, stating that ‘Canada is proud to have a feminist foreign policy, not because it looks good, but because it produces tangible and measurable results’.
Women’s rights are human rights. That includes sexual reproductive rights and the right to safe and accessible abortions. These rights are at the core of our foreign policy.
Christia Freeland, Canada’s former Foreign Affairs Minister
Less than a month later, the world as we all knew it changed drastically and quickly. Canada was locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the federal government was suddenly wholly focused on responding to this unprecedented crisis.
Unsurprisingly, there has been no public statement about the promised white paper since February 2020.
THE WEBINAR & PANELISTS
With this context in mind, the purpose of the webinar was to discuss the future of Feminist Foreign Policy in Canada.
The panelists included:
- Fiona Robinson (Carleton University)
- Marsha Henry (London School of Economics and Political Science)
- Laura Macdonald (Carleton University)
- Margaret Jenkins (Central European University)
- Stephen Brown (University of Ottawa)
- Rebecca Tiessen (University of Ottawa)
- Beth Woroniuk (Policy Lead, Equality Fund)
Some of the questions the panel looked to discuss included:
- What should a Canadian FFP look like, going forward?
- What kind of ‘tangible and measurable results’ can or should be expected?
- What understandings of gender and race inform feminist foreign policy, and what are the implications of these?
- Can FFP be truly intersectional?
- How, if at all, should our understanding of FFP be influenced by the socio-political and economic effects of the global pandemic?
I wish I had enough time and energy to discuss each of the above-noted questions, but in the interest of holding your attention, I will focus on some of my key takeaways in the context of the global digital divide juxtaposed with feminist policies emerging from Canada.
WHAT IS “FEMINIST FOREIGN POLICY” ANYWAY?
According to The Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, a Feminist Foreign Policy is “a political framework centered around the welfare of marginalized individuals and invokes processes of self-reflection concerning foreign policy’s hierarchical global systems”.
FFP takes a step outside the traditional foreign policy thinking and its focus on military force, violence, and domination by offering an alternate and intersectional rethinking of policy making from the viewpoint of the most vulnerable. As reiterated throughout the webinar, FFP is a multi-dimensional policy framework that aims to elevate women’s and marginalized groups’ experiences to scrutinize the destructive forces of patriarchy, colonization, heteronormativity, capitalism, racism, imperialism, and militarism.
Here’s a quick history on Feminist Foreign Policy:
KEY LESSONS AND TAKEAWAYS
The webinar challenged attendees to consider the three focal points of FFP: on equal rights; on women’s participation in politics and peace processes; and on how resources are allocated between women and men. This initiative has previously been characterized as ‘a normative reorientation of foreign policy’ (Aggestam & Bergman-Rosamond, 2016). As noted by Professor Fiona Robinson during the webinar, “Feminist Foreign Policy recognizes women, particularly in the Global South, who do it all – they are the economic powerhouses that dig communities out of poverty, while they themselves remain unpaid”.
So, what role has Canada played in all of this?
In the 1990s, the Canadian government was recognized as a global leader in promoting the Internet for economic, social, and cultural growth through their creation of national programs to increase Internet access for citizens, and internationally, via participation in global information infrastructure initiatives. The nation recognized the need to increase gender equity on the Internet, and this was reflected early on in policy statements that highlighted the need to eradicate to access barriers for women.
As the Internet became more popular and commercialized during the mid-1990s, Canada contemplated gender equity to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in their public policy debates.
Throughout the webinar, FFP was discussed in the context of the current state of the world. In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic having taken over the world’s attention, the panelists discussed how it has become clear that various circumstances have always adversely impacted women in particular. The key takeaway here was that it’s important to understand that crises affect women and men in different ways, and previously discriminated and marginalized groups and individuals are being hit the hardest, with COVID-19 being no exception:
- Women’s economic situations are disproportionately affected, as they are often found in low-wage jobs and oftentimes lacking access to social safety nets
- Violence against women has increased
- Women’s rights organizations have also reported on the challenges in participating in political and peace processes
- The single biggest threat to women’s rights defenders is the lack of recognition from governments and international bodies – Margaret Jenkins urged that more strategic discussions need to take place in order for us to debunk the myths surrounding FFP and what it sets out to achieve
- The work on women’s human rights is not seen as part of the ‘real’ work to promote human rights – Jenkins also noted that FFP is continually being threatened by the growing politicization of feminist movements, and we must ensure that these female-centric policies are not out-manoeuvered as a result
Canada must be held to the same rigorous standards as other countries to address the root causes of persistent gender inequality here at home.
Jayne Stoyles, Executive Director, Amnesty International Canada
However, as noted by Marsha Henry during the webinar, it is critical to understand the divides that still exist between domestic and foreign policies, and there is a need to continually develop specific feminist (and race) theories that policymakers must rely on in their fields of work. Ultimately, if other relevant actors don’t consider the feminist foreign policy legitimate and coherent, the chance that it will prove effective is severely reduced (Elgström & Chaban, 2015).
At the end of the day, when it comes to the digital divide, it is not just women’s ease of access to technology and/or possession of technological skills that matter. The circumstances in which women can make use of the ICTs are equally, if not more, important. The phenomenon embracing the disparities in access and use of ICTs by women and men is called the “gender digital divide” (Huyer & Mitter, 2003). In spite of the gender digital divide and many other challenges faced by women, the ICTs provide an important forum for women to circumvent restrictions placed upon them in gender-segregated societies. The virtual world offers radically new settings for women’s communications, as well as their empowerment.
This is a topic I’ll discuss in further detail in my next blog post, so stay tuned!
NEXT STEPS
Ensuring that women and girls can enjoy their fundamental human rights is both an obligation and a prerequisite for reaching broader foreign policy goals on peace, security, equality, and sustainable development.
With its strong focus on gender equality, I learned that Canada’s policy aims to help address the needs of those living in poverty and facing ongoing inequality and conflict. It is a policy that seeks to offer real opportunities – the kind that will make a lasting difference in the lives of women and girls, help to break the cycle of poverty for all and build a more peaceful, more inclusive, and more prosperous world. A world where no one will be left behind for any reason.
Likewise, I learned that a change in mindsets is necessary in order to create and uphold policies that truly allow women and girls to become equal members of a digital society, information society, network society, knowledge society, or simply equal members of society. Technology is helping women get around mechanisms of censorship, amplifying women’s voices and presence at the regional and (inter)national levels, and encouraging women to forge new alliances (Skalli, 2006).
Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out future events hosted by The Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy.
REFERENCES
Aggestam, K. & Bergman-Rosamond, A. (2016). Swedish Feminist Foreign policy in the making: Ethics, politics, and gender. Ethics & International Affairs. DOI: 10.1017/S0892679416000241
Elgström, O. & Chaban, N. (2015). Studying external perceptions of the EU: Conceptual and methodological approaches. In V.Bachmann & M.Müller (Eds.), Looking in from the outside: Perceptions of the EU in Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan
Huyer, S. & Mitter, S. (2003). ICTs, Globalisation and Poverty Reduction: Gender Dimensions of the Knowledge Society Part I. Poverty Reduction, Gender Equality and the Knowledge Society: Digital Exclusion or Digital Opportunity? URL: http://gab.wigsat.org/partI.pdf
Skalli, L.H. (2006). Communicating Gender in the Public Sphere: Women and Information Technologies in the MENA. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/mew.2006.2.2.35