“The Government Is Operationalizing Neo-liberalism”: Women's Organizations, Status of Women Canada, and the Struggle for Progressive Social Change in Canada

Abstract

Since its election in 2006, Stephen Harper's Conservative government has made a number of dramatic budgetary moves, transforming gender-based infrastructure and cementing a decade-long erosion and delegitimization of the women's movement in Canada. The most significant change has been the reconfiguration of Status of Women Canada (SWC), the main government organization responsible for ensuring the full participation of women in Canadian society. The government accomplished this transformation by reducing SWC's overall budget by $5 million; eliminating its $1 million Status of Women Independent Research Fund; removing the term “advancement of equality” from the mandate of the organization; and closing 12 of its 16 regional offices. In addition, advocacy and research organizations have been classified as no longer eligible for funding, while for-profit organizations have been granted eligibility. It is perhaps too early to assess whether the Canadian women's movement has survived neo-liberalism. However, in this study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 25 representatives of national and provincial women's organizations engaged in advocacy and service provision across Canada, to examine what their experiences revealed about present modes of governance, in light of the recent funding cuts and changes to SWC's mandate. In addition, we examined the projects funded by SWC between 2007 and 2011. We argue that various technologies of rule, such as the procedures and the types of projects (mainly service provision) funded by SWC's Women's Program, increasingly work to shape, normalize, and instrumentalize the conduct of individuals as responsible, enterprising citizens (Miller & Rose 2008). Despite the funding of women's organizations being increasingly defined within market rationality and self-governing technologies, many women-run non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attempt to circumvent neo-liberal trends by, for example, speaking within alliances, carefully writing grant applications to fit SWC priorities, and using funds to support core programs.