Stephanie Paterson, PhD

I received my PhD in Public Policy at the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, where I specialized in Canadian public policy. My work centres on the effects produced when states take up and deploy feminist knowledge and expertise, which has led to substantive expertise in feminist and critical policy studies; feminist governance, state feminism, and gender mainstreaming; and the politics of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. I am currently engaged in three research projects, two of which are SSHRC-funded. The first SSHRC-funded project concerns the various ways in which gender-based analysis plus (GBA plus) is constituted and applied in federal and provincial governments, with particular attention to the degree to which GBA plus disrupts technocratic discourse and practice. The second SSHRC-funded project is a transdisciplinary investigation of the transition to motherhood, with emphasis on the lived effects of policy interventions aimed at first-time birth parents. I am also working on a project that explores the potential of emotions, care, and empathy to transform how we analyze, design and implement public policy. I teach in the areas of policy theory, feminist policy studies, and Canadian public policy. I am the Book Review Co-Editor for Critical Policy Studies and sit on the Editorial Advisory Boar of Policy & Politics. I am also the Co-Director of the Feminist Policy Lab with Dr. Francesca Scala.

Research interests

Feminist and Critical Policy Studies; Feminist Governance, State Feminism, and Gender Mainstreaming; Politics of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood.

POLI 353             Principles of Public Policy
POLI 411             Gender and Public Policy
POLI 636/805      Theories of Public Policy and Public Administration
POLI 648             Feminist Critiques of Public Policy
POLI 683S           Politics of Reproduction
POLI 600             Public Policy and the Governmental Process in Canada

Edited Collections 

Cattapan, A. E. Tungohan, N. Nath, F. MacDonald, and S. Paterson (eds). 2024. Feministing in Political Science. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press. 

Levasseur, K., S. Paterson, and L. Turnbull (eds.). 2020. Mothering and Welfare: Depriving, Surviving, Thriving. Toronto: Demeter Press.

Articles 

Paterson, S., L. Larios, D. Trussell, S. Hebblethwaite, and J. Mooradian. Forthcoming. Maternal Responsibilization in Times of Crisis: Transition to Motherhood and Collective Anxiety in Canada. Journal of Gender Studies.

Silver, H., F. Scala, and S. Paterson. Forthcoming. “GBA and/as Digital Feminism.” Canadian Public Administration.

Paterson, S. and F. Scala. 2021. “Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada.” International Review of Public Policy.

Larios, L. and S. Paterson. 2021. “Fear of the Other: Vulnerabilization, Social Empathy, and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada.” Critical Policy Studies, 15(2): 137-145. 

Paterson, S. and L. Larios. 2020. “Emotional States: Transnational Motherhood, Policymaking and the Politics of Empathy in Canada.” Critical Policy Studies. 

Book Chapters

Bradford, I., F. Scala, and S. Paterson. Forthcoming “Pay Equity Regimes in Canada: Implementation Challenges and Outcomes.” In Pay Equity, Amy Mazur and Isabel Engali (eds.). Oxford University Press. 

Larios, L. and S. Paterson. Forthcoming. “The Border at the Clinic Door: Perinatal Care for Medically Uninsured Migrants.” In Born and Raised: The Politics of Reproduction in Canada, Alana Cattapan and Megan Gaucher (eds.). McGill-Queen’s University Press. 

Paterson, S. and L. Larios. Forthcoming. “Emotional Problems: Post-Structural Policy Analysis and Emotional Discourse.” In “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ Approach to Policy Analysis: Applications and Arguments, Rosalind Edwards and Malin Ronnblom (eds.). Bristol University Press.

Bradford, I., L. Larios, and S. Paterson. Forthcoming. “Reproductive (In)Justice? Vulnerabilization and the Persistent Undermining of Midwives in Ontario, Canada.” In The Battle Over Birth: Unpacking the Contested Space of Childbirth. Nicole Thualagant and Katja Schroder (eds.). Routledge. 

Paterson, S. 2024. Don’t be an Asshole: The Politics of Intimacy, Social Empathy, and Design Justice in Canadian Political Science. In Feministing in Political Science, Cattapan, A. E. Tungohan, N. Nath, F. MacDonald, and S. Paterson (eds). Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.

Paterson, S. and F. Scala. 2020. “Feminist Government or Government Feminism? Exploring Feminist Policy Analysis in the Trudeau Era.” In Turbulent Times, Transformational Possibilities? Gender and Politics Today and Tomorrow, A. Dobrowolsky and F. MacDonald (eds.). University of Toronto Press.

Other

Paterson, S. and F. Scala. 2025. “Gender/Intersectionality Mainstreaming.” Encyclopedia of Public Policy. Springer.