Watching Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan’s testimony to the House of Commons committee on March 12, we were struck by his insistence that adding more women to the Canadian military was a proven way of challenging toxic masculinity and creating culture change. According to Sajjan, “we know” that a strategy of having more women “at the table” works. If only that were true.
The “add women and stir” approach has dominated Canadian measures for gender equality since the 1980s. It is premised on the idea, reflected in Sajjan’s comments, that numeric representation of underrepresented groups will lead to better outcomes for their members. Such an approach, however, largely leaves power structures and practices intact, the very structures that have contributed to underrepresentation. As feminist scholars and activists have consistently demonstrated, while adding members of underrepresented groups to existing power structures and practices is necessary for inclusion and equity, it is by no means synonymous with change.
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