NAC, the News, and the Neoliberal State, 1984-1993
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NAC, the News, and the Neoliberal State, 1984-1993 Samantha C. Thrift Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University, Montreal August 2009 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Studies. © Samantha C. 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Abstract This study situates the National Action Committee on the Status of Women’s [NAC] activism and media strategies in relation to the emergence of neoliberal policy and political discourse at the federal level in Canada. The rise of neoliberal policies and political language during the 1980s and early 1990s in Canada created a new terrain on which political debates about women’s issues entered into public culture. Consequently, women’s organizations had to change advocacy strategies in order to participate in national political discourse and contest the terms on which women’s issues were being framed. While this story has primarily been told as the beginning of the end of Canadian second wave feminism, my dissertation investigates how Canadian feminism did not decline or die, as news media reported, but instead was forced to change strategies and, in the process, re-organize the movement’s shape, objectives and practice. My study uses qualitative, historical and discursive analysis to examine two sets of representations occurring around the NAC-sponsored federal leadership debates. The first set is drawn from representations of the organization’s interests and strategies produced through their own materials, policies and media tactics. This approach facilitates analysis of the internal dynamics informing NAC’s media strategy, so as to fully evince the organization’s keen awareness of the potential opportunities and constraints for Canadian women presented by a shift to a neoliberal federal framework. The second set is constructed in the English-language news media around NAC’s strategic media events in order to determine the ways in which the Canadian women’s movement was being discussed and historicized in the mainstream news media. Abstrait La présente recherche fait le point sur l’activité militante et les stratégies médiatiques du comité canadien d’action sur le statut de la femme (CCASF), en relation avec l’émergence d’une politique et d’un discours néolibéraux au niveau fédéral. Le développement des politiques néolibérales et du langage politique au cours des années 1980 et au début des années 1990, au Canada, a créé une nouvelle réalité dans laquelle les débats politiques sur les questions féminines sont entrés dans la culture populaire. Par conséquent, les organisations féminines ont été forcées de modifier leurs stratégies en matière de représentation des femmes, afin d’être en mesure de participer au discours politique canadien et de contester les modalités servant à formuler les questions relatives à la condition féminine. Même si ce sujet a été présenté principalement comme le commencement de la fin de la deuxième vague féministe au Canada, ma thèse explique pourquoi le féminisme n’est pas mort, comme l’avaient annoncé les médias, mais qu’il a dû modifier ses stratégies, et par la même occasion, restructurer la forme, les objectifs et les pratiques du mouvement. Ma recherche utilise l’analyse qualitative, historique et discursive pour examiner deux groupes de représentations qui ont eu lieu autour des débats parrainés par le CCASF. Le premier groupe est tiré de représentations relatives aux intérêts et aux stratégies de l’organisation, effectuées à l’aide de son propre matériel, de ses politiques et de ses tactiques médiatiques. Cette approche facilite l’analyse de la dynamique interne qui a influencé les stratégies médiatiques du CCASF, afin de démontrer pleinement que l’organisation était consciente des perspectives et des contraintes éventuelles qu’un changement vers une structure néolibérale fédérale créerait pour les Canadiennes. Le deuxième groupe est constitué à partir des informations provenant des médias anglophones sur les stratégies médiatiques du CCASF, afin de déterminer la perception du mouvement féministe canadien par les médias grand public, et la place qu’ils lui ont attribuée dans l’histoire. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Carrie Rentschler, for her unflagging support, enthusiasm and good humour. Dr. Rentschler’s commitment to academic excellence has been a constant source of inspiration during my years of study with her. Her perceptive comments and skillful guidance have significantly enhanced the scope and quality of this project – and I believe my future writing endeavors will always be informed (and made better) by the memory of her unremitting prodding to “say more.” As I move forward in my academic career, I will strive to become the mentor to my students that she has been to me. I would like to thank the members of my defense committee, Drs. Jenny Burman, Barbara Freeman, Becky Lentz, Suzanne Morton and Marc Raboy, for their invaluable feedback and critical commentary. Their insights both challenged and inspired me to continue my work on NAC and the Canadian feminist movement. I am grateful to have received financial support from several sources, including the Department of Art History and Communication Studies, the McGill Faculty of Arts, Media@McGill, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, and the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women (now the McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies). The support provided by these agencies, in combination with a Social Sciences and Humanities Internal Research Grant and an Alma Mater McGill Major Fellowship, was of inestimable value to the successful completion of my dissertation, sanity intact. My research was facilitated by the expert and friendly assistance of the archival staff at the Canadian Women’s Movement Archives at the University of Ottawa. Resource personnel Lucie Desjardin, Linda Arsenault, and Jacqueline Petre-Pleacoff greeted my requests with interest and dispatch; their efforts helped me make the most of my time spent in the archive and I look forward to working with them again in the future. When I entered the program, Dr. Will Straw gave me an opportunity to conduct research at the National Archives of Canada on his behalf; until then, I was not aware of the addictive power of paper-sifting. I cannot thank him enough for his early guidance and ongoing support. I would also like to thank Dr. Janice Dickin, a University of Calgary professor who guided me through my transition to McGill from a distance. Her confidence in my abilities as a feminist researcher and “big thinker” during my MA degree inspired me to take the leap into the unknown territory of Canadian women’s movement history. Dr. Dickin exerted more influence on this work than she likely knows. Writing a dissertation is an isolating process, but I found certain relief during monthly meetings of the feminist working group established by Dr. Rentschler. I want to thank the women in that group for creating a safe testing ground for my ideas as well as for giving feedback on some pretty rough draft chapters. Providing some much needed non- academic support, my friends Karen Herland and the Other Sam (Diamond) have stood by me throughout this grueling process and been wonderful distractions over the past several years. The last word belongs to my family, without whom this project would not be completed. My grandmother, Ileen Hunter, offered her encouragement through telephone calls and birthday cheques, which kept coming even into my thirties. It is difficult to recount the many ways in which my parents, Bill and Gayle, and sister and brother-in-law, Karin Erica and Colin, have supported me through this final chapter of my formal education. Suffice it to say that, despite the difficulties present in their own lives, they have always found time to be my sounding board, or to listen to something I’d just written, or to let me vent and cry about a “stupid chapter not working.” I couldn’t ask for more.