Abstract
Social scientists have long argued that phenomena, such as systemic discrimination, must be understood within their wider socio-political-legal contexts if we are to understand them and create change. The law, in particular, has been described as “the collective expression of the public will,” (Abella, 1984, p.7) and it is generally accepted that it has the power to give meaning to social realities and produce subjectivities. As indicated by Sheppard (2013, p. 103), one of the greatest challenges therein is the notion of systemic discrimination, which is “embedded in processes, practices, norms and relationships that reproduce and accentuate inequality”. These bear a significant resemblance to Joan Acker’s notion of the gendered organization (1990, 1992a, 1992b) and the processes by which organizations become such, collectively identified as ‘gendering’.
This study is very much a work in progress and is being done in two parts. The first is a close examination of the evolution of our understanding of systemic discrimination and systemic remedies in law, using a socio-legal approach. Scholarly articles, legal commentaries and case law were analysed and resulted in a set of ‘critical turns’ in the law that shaped our understanding of systemic discrimination and systemic remedies.
The second part of the study is a ‘layering’ of Joan Acker’s gendering processes on the critical turns identified in the first part of the study. It will engage Poststructuralist feminist theory to problematize both text and interpretation, along with the socio-political context in which the texts were written. The aim is to better understand how systemic discrimination and systemic remedies are understood within Canadian jurisprudence, with an eye toward emancipatory change.
Some may feel that this is an unlikely pairing – the law and Joan Acker’s gendering processes. Despite my own qualms about the appropriateness of the pairing (given the law’s colonial underpinnings and tendency toward the masculine and Joan Acker’s feminist aims), I feel that the two are aligned in a way that might be leveraged to stimulate real change.