Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada

In this paper, we explore the post-truth era as a contextual factor in how gender expertise is constituted, challenged, and defended in policy discourse in Canadian context. Using post-structural policy analysis to explore the contours of media scrutiny and the resulting debate about gender-based an...

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Main Authors: Stephanie Paterson, Francesca Scala
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: OpenEdition 2021-12-01
Series:International Review of Public Policy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/1562
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author Stephanie Paterson
Francesca Scala
author_facet Stephanie Paterson
Francesca Scala
author_sort Stephanie Paterson
collection DOAJ
description In this paper, we explore the post-truth era as a contextual factor in how gender expertise is constituted, challenged, and defended in policy discourse in Canadian context. Using post-structural policy analysis to explore the contours of media scrutiny and the resulting debate about gender-based analysis plus (GBA+), Canada’s approach to gender mainstreaming, we reveal that it was ultimately a debate about the role of gender/intersectional expertise within government. We demonstrate that GBA+, and the gender expertise informing it, was often represented in mainstream media as either a “political intervention” or as a “technical tool”, both of which reinforce traditional representations of policy expertise, including political neutrality and professional competence, which, in the past, have been used to justify the exclusion of “other” forms of knowledge. In unpacking these representations, we suggest that, even among critics of post-truth claims, post-truth discourse offers a new vocabulary, anchored in what Ringrose (2018, 653) refers to as “post-truth anti-feminism”, which emphasizes not simply identity politics, but also potential harm resulting from interventions based on feminist knowledge. We also suggest that such claims have resulted in a distancing between gender expertise and feminism, thus contributing to the erasure of feminist knowledge in policy contexts.
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spelling doaj-art-e5e776c7f5d24271972f63a315efef7a2025-01-09T16:25:57ZengOpenEditionInternational Review of Public Policy2679-38732706-62742021-12-013324726510.4000/irpp.1562Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in CanadaStephanie PatersonFrancesca ScalaIn this paper, we explore the post-truth era as a contextual factor in how gender expertise is constituted, challenged, and defended in policy discourse in Canadian context. Using post-structural policy analysis to explore the contours of media scrutiny and the resulting debate about gender-based analysis plus (GBA+), Canada’s approach to gender mainstreaming, we reveal that it was ultimately a debate about the role of gender/intersectional expertise within government. We demonstrate that GBA+, and the gender expertise informing it, was often represented in mainstream media as either a “political intervention” or as a “technical tool”, both of which reinforce traditional representations of policy expertise, including political neutrality and professional competence, which, in the past, have been used to justify the exclusion of “other” forms of knowledge. In unpacking these representations, we suggest that, even among critics of post-truth claims, post-truth discourse offers a new vocabulary, anchored in what Ringrose (2018, 653) refers to as “post-truth anti-feminism”, which emphasizes not simply identity politics, but also potential harm resulting from interventions based on feminist knowledge. We also suggest that such claims have resulted in a distancing between gender expertise and feminism, thus contributing to the erasure of feminist knowledge in policy contexts.https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/1562gender expertisegender mainstreamingGBA+post-structural policy analysispost-truth
spellingShingle Stephanie Paterson
Francesca Scala
Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
International Review of Public Policy
gender expertise
gender mainstreaming
GBA+
post-structural policy analysis
post-truth
title Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
title_full Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
title_fullStr Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
title_full_unstemmed Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
title_short Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
title_sort understanding gender expertise in the post truth era media representations of gender based analysis plus in canada
topic gender expertise
gender mainstreaming
GBA+
post-structural policy analysis
post-truth
url https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/1562
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AT francescascala understandinggenderexpertiseintheposttrutheramediarepresentationsofgenderbasedanalysisplusincanada