PUBLICATIONS - SPP Research Paper - WHAT’S NEW ABOUT CANADA’S FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL

In focusing on binaries of women and men and the explicit focus on generalized groups of women and girls, the FIAP fails to capture the “complexity of gender hierarchies”. [...] Similar critiques of the ambiguous definition of feminism and the implications of the particular approach and rhetoric the FIAP employs are captured in the analysis of its generally instrumentalist approach. [...] Furthermore, the continued commitment to gender equality (with the limitations and weaknesses provided by critics – and summarized above – in mind) highlights the possibilities of “more of the same” when gender equality remains at the heart of Canada’s international assistance and foreign policy priorities. [...] CONCLUSION A review of the FIAP and the emerging analyses of this policy’s contributions to feminism, gender and international assistance reveal important ways that the FIAP offers both innovation and “more of the same”. [...] In assessing what’s new about the FIAP, it is clear that the rhetoric of innovation and newness frame the messaging while the content and commitments suggest the FIAP is “more of the same” in terms of past policy priorities, conceptual ambiguity and missed opportunities.