Feminism confronts democracy - Tupper (2008) - May 28 Reading Note - Jenn Bergen

Tupper, J. (2008). Feminism confronts democracy: Challenging universal citizenship and democratic education. In A. Abdi & G. Richardson (Eds.) Decolonizing democratic education (pp. 67-76). Rotterdam: Sense.

Main Argument

Tupper (2008) argues that women and girls, especially racialized women and girls, have never been full members of Canadian democracy, since it was built on colonial and patriarchal assumptions that are reproduced in the present. In addition, Tupper (2008) argues that the public school system supports this process of reproducing women and girls as second-class citizens of democracy.

Supporting Points

Tupper (2008) argues that, “for women, democracy has never existed” (p. 68). First, she reminds readers that political rights were originally based on “a fraternal contract that constitutes civil society as a patriarchal or masculine order (Pateman as cited in Tupper, 2008, p. 68). Later modifications to this original formation, such as awarding women the right to vote and participate more readily in political realms does not, however, erase these original inequalities (Tupper, 2008, p. 69). In fact, she argues that full inclusion of women in a system which was originally based on their exclusion may never be possible (2008, p. 70), as the foundational assumptions behind this exclusion live on in practice (women as emotional versus men as rational, etc.) (2008, p. 70). In order to provide examples of this inequality at its worst, Tupper uses the Stolen Sisters report on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada in order to provide examples of how democratic rights are not experienced universally. She related several of the stories from the report, and in doing so illuminates the most disturbing parts of violence against Indigenous women and girls – that this violence is sexist and racist, but responses from the (democratic) public authorities are also sexist and racist (2008, p. 73).

The public schooling system, as an extension of the state, is interrogated next for its role in reinforcing second-class citizenship for women, through what Tupper has termed the “meta-narrative of universal citizenship” (2008, p. 72). Using examples from several Canadian provinces, Tupper show how citizenship is constructed as equally applicable to all students, and at worst, presented this way neutrally by teachers (p. 72). She questions embedded assumptions in these curricular documents that discuss rights as unequal in the past, but currently universal; primarily male contributions to the founding of the nation; and the “production of whiteness as the norm” in citizenship curricular narratives (p. 74). She then concludes by reiterating that citizenship as status and citizenship as practice subjugate women and girls as second-class citizens in Canadian democracy, in particular Indigenous women and girls (p. 75).

Assessment / Critique

Tupper (2008) presents the under-discussed gendered nature of citizenship and forces readers to confront the effects of patriarchy and colonialism on current manifestations of differential rights in practice for women and girls in Canada. Her argument is strengthened by weaving the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women into her chapter, as heartbreaking reminders of how commonplace male violence against women is in our ‘democracy’. I also appreciated the way that she subtly disrupts standard chapter-writing format, in order to point to just how complex and intertwined issues of equality, gender, and citizenship are, if not in policy, then definitely in practice. Most importantly, Tupper supports her arguments with both a variety of theoretical feminist views on citizenship, and real-life examples of how gender inequality is embedded in universal notions of citizenship.

The only criticism that I had of this chapter was that it was too short. Tupper made her points succinctly and supported them very well, but I would have liked more discussion of how school curricula reinforces the inequalities she is outlining. I’m sure that she has likely written about that elsewhere, but I found myself craving more examples. As a result, I was left with questions about how Tupper would see the ‘way forward’ in addressing some of these issues. What does an education for a plurality of citizenship identities look like? Should education for citizenship actually be more about educating for social justice?