Abstract
In 2003, McPhail published a Feminist Policy Analysis Framework concluding that the many available methods of policy analysis across disciplines, including social work, treated policies as gender-neutral compositions. McPhail (2003) asserted that these methods denied the many ways that institutions and policies of society are organized by the concepts of gender, therefore presenting incomplete products of analysis. This guiding purpose for the development of McPhail’s (2003) Feminist Policy Analysis Framework endures a full fifteen years later. In the years since publication of McPhail’s Framework, advancements have been made in both feminist theory and in policy analysis methods. This conceptual article outlines a much-needed revision moving the framework into a contemporary position with the inclusion of a focus on privilege, oppression, and intersectionality. The revised framework presented herein is a more conceptually comprehensive and practical model for use by all, but particularly social work students and scholars. The revised model represents an update rendering it more effective in today’s polarized political climate as well as with the recently revised social work educational policy (Council on Social Work Education, 2015). A revised framework of Feminist Intersectional Policy Analysis is presented, including guiding questions and conceptual complexities to consider in the work of analysis.
Highlights
In 2003, McPhail published a Feminist Policy Analysis Framework concluding that the many available methods of policy analysis across disciplines, including social work, treated policies as gender-neutral compositions. McPhail (2003) asserted that these methods denied the many ways that institutions and policies of society are organized by the concepts of gender, presenting incomplete products of analysis
The multitheoretical training of the profession, coupled with the professional mandate to work toward advancing social justice, leaves social work professionals well-situated to do the work of policy analysis
We present a review and critique of policy analysis methods, including McPhail’s Feminist Policy Analysis Framework (McPhail, 2003)
Summary
Feminist theory has evolved over time to represent many standpoints which share some thematic similarities in both focus and intention. The questions provided explore major themes of feminist analysis which are the issues of equality; special treatment and protection; the myth of gender neutrality; multiple identities; context of the policy; language; rights and responsibilities; the symbolic versus the material; role equity and change; and the access to/assignment of power (McPhail, 2003) This was an effort to be purposefully inclusive of those who experience marginalization. Feminist and Intersectional Theories and thinking have evolved and changed in the decade since the original publication of McPhail’s Feminist Policy Framework (McPhail, 2003) Recognizing these factors, the Feminist Policy Framework has been revised in a move toward more inclusively reflecting the most current understandings of social issues, lived experiences, social contexts and structures, the certainty of multiple marginalization in today’s society, and more. Does the policy contain elements of social control of cisgender women, transgender women, nonbinary individuals, migrants? Are there other social locations of women that result in social control of their identity due to devaluing or creating of additional inequalities?
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