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Analysing women's place in public policy

Political Science Professor Stephanie Paterson earns Dean's New Scholar Award for her research
October 25, 2010
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By Katherine Gombay

Source: Concordia Journal

Stephanie Paterson heads an interdisciplinary working group on Gender and Public Policy. | Photo by Andrew Dobrowolskyj
Stephanie Paterson heads an interdisciplinary working group on Gender and Public Policy. | Photo by Andrew Dobrowolskyj

Stephanie Paterson’s “Aha” moment came when she was in her second year of a BA in Canadian History at the University of Western Ontario.

She was taking a course in Canadian politics when a professor said in class one day, “Don’t kid yourselves, women have had little role in shaping politics.”

Paterson’s reaction was immediate. “I thought, just wait a minute there, women have played a role in public policy, even in their very absence from politics—they may not be obviously there, but they’re still there.”

It’s this interest in exploring women’s absence, as well as their intersections with formal Canadian public policy, that has motivated all of Paterson’s research since.

Paterson, who recently received one of the Dean’s New Scholar Awards (see related story), came to Concordia in 2007 to take up a position in the Political Science Department. She has an MA in Public Administration and a PhD in Public Policy from Carleton University. After finishing her MA, she spent a year as an analyst with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. It wasn’t an overwhelmingly positive experience. “One of the things that was somewhat disillusioning about being in the government was that I didn’t feel that I was contributing to a positive change…. I know that’s not inherent; I have lots of friends who are effective and active in their work in government, but for me, it just propelled my need to think about scholarly work.”

Whether writing about conjugal violence, midwifery legislation, or the “mainstreaming” of gender analysis in Canadian public policy, the originality of Paterson’s work is that it provides a feminist analysis that focuses on policy discourses. In two recent articles published in Canadian Public Administration and Critical Policy Studies, Paterson explores the ways that gender inequalities become anchored in the very way in which the policies are framed — something that perpetuates the power imbalances that the policies were originally designed to address.

In addition to her teaching and publishing work, Paterson is actively involved with a number of interdisciplinary groups at Concordia. The newly formed Working Group on Gender and Public Policy brings together professors from various departments, including the John Molson School of Business, education, political science and applied human sciences to work together on areas where there are policy silences. Paterson is also a member of the Centre for Research in Human Development and the Concordia Ageing Research Network, as well as being a fellow at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute. She recently co-organized a two-day workshop on “The Politics of Reproduction and Motherhood in Canada,” which brought together academics and activists from across the country.

Paterson’s work is attracting a lot of attention within academia, but also in more mainstream journals, as well as in government circles. Occasionally she hears through friends that policy-makers are reading her work, and rarely she gets a phone call directly from someone in government. It’s these calls that she finds most exciting. “I want to contribute to the ideas around change,” she exlains.” Policy-makers need to be aware of how their ideas might inadvertently contribute to oppression.”

Given Paterson’s range of interests, her enthusiasm, and her determination, it would be surprising if her work didn’t have an impact both on the way that people analyse public policy in future and, more importantly, on how it’s written.

Related links:
  Concordia Political Science Department
•  Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture—Working group on Gender and Public Policy
•  Simone de Beauvoir Institute
•  Centre for Research in Human Development
•  Concordia Ageing Research Network



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