Resources Adr Ian 2

2 Resources – Short Assignment #3 – Adrian Paris
Paterson, Stephanie. "(Re)Constructing women's resistance to woman abuse." Critical Social

Policy Vol. 29 No. 1 (2009): 121-45.
This paper was published by Critical Social Policy, a branch of SAGE Publications, an
independent international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media. The author,
Stephanie Paterson, is currently an assistant professor in the Political Science department of
Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She earned a PhD in public policy from the school of
public policy and administration at Carleton University, Canada. She specializes in feminist
policy studies and has published in the areas of Canadian family policy, midwifery legislation,
and conjugal violence against women.
This paper looks at the policies adopted against women’s violence and abuse in Canada,
and the resistance of women towards anti-woman abuse policy in Canada. The author uses the
Canadian General Social Survey on Victimization (1999) along with more recent statistics, and
explores how effective anti-violence policies and the related infrastructure is in enabling women
to use publicly provided services in times of distress or abuse, as opposed to private alternatives,
or none at all. Paterson argues that most publicly provided services are in need for reform, and
that there are even cases of women who choose not to leave their abusive partners, due to certain
financial constraints. According to Paterson, some other causes of the continuation of violence in
relationships can be attributed to issues with the police response infrastructure when it comes to
issues of abuse, and the manner in which the behaviour of women in abusive relationships tends
to viewed as the problem as opposed to the behaviour of the men.

There does not seem to be any particular bias in this paper, and the author does not seem
to have any apparent affiliations with any interest groups. This paper has been peer reviewed,
and well documented with scholarly sources, showing that it is an acceptable piece of
scholarship with high academic standards. An issue I found with this article, is that the author
does not acknowledge that resistance might not be a suitable litmus test for all issues of policy
success or failure, but seems to generalize total effectiveness for this research. This paper offers
a scholarly perspective of the policies regarding violence against women in the Canadian
context, as it considers the failures within the current policy by examining women’s resistance to
the current infrastructure and policies adopted by different levels of the Canadian government.
Brodie, Janine. "We are all equal now: Contemporary gender politics in Canada." SAGE
Publications Vol.9 No.2 (2008): 145-64.
This paper was published by Critical Social Policy, a branch of SAGE Publications, an
independent international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media. The author, Janine
Brodie, is a Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair at the University of
Alberta. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she has authored numerous journal articles,
book chapters and several books on the politics of gender in Canada.
This article focuses on the equality (not only procedural, but substantive equality) of
women in policy decisions among the different levels of government within Canada, and
examines changes in policy based on changes in political parties and the advent of neoliberalism.
“The article recounts how the Canadian welfare state underwrote a unique gender
equality infrastructure inside the state and a thick ﬁeld of gender organizations in civil society
and later how this potent political and symbolic node of social liberalism became a critical ﬁeld
of contestation for those promoting neoliberal political rationalities.” (Brodie, 145) Brodie is
very critical of recent social trends among Canadians that casts gender as being irrelevant, as
well as neoliberal policy that has brought about disastrous changes in the accepted family and
societal values. The author is very familiar with the problems facing gender politics over the last
couple decades, due to the neoliberal policies within the Canadian system, and concludes that
“these problems may no longer be rendered visible through the lens of social liberalism or the
language of citizenship equality, but they also cannot be contained or sublimated by the conceits
of the neoliberal project.” (Brodie, 152)
This paper has been written in a scholarly manner, and seems to be free of any bias. The
author does not seem to have any apparent affiliations with any interest groups, and is affiliated
with a well-known academic institution: University of Alberta. This paper has been peer-
reviewed, and well documented with scholarly sources, showing that it is an acceptable piece of
scholarship with high academic standards.
This paper offers a scholarly perspective of the policies regarding women in the Canadian
context, by evaluating the effect of government expenditures that are targeted towards women
who actually need government help, “particularly aboriginal women, victims of abuse, and the
elderly.” (Brodie, 159)

For my group project in the FAFIA group, I will have to gain more scholarly, peer-
reviewed resources of such quality that draw parallels between violence against women and their
financial circumstances. I understand that raw statistical data is valuable, but peer-reviewed
scholarly journals are much more suited to this project. Furthermore, I will need to collect
resources that evaluate the current policies in place to prevent violence against women, and
examine the successes and failures of such policies. I will also find more academic sources
relating to education, employment and violence of women in Canada, which will allow our group
to provide FAFIA with much more than a mere statistical update of their document, but also link
the document to academic papers, and debates regarding the above issues.

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2 Resources – Short Assignment #3 – Adrian Paris

Paterson, Stephanie. "(Re)Constructing women's resistance to woman abuse." Critical Social

Stephanie Paterson, is currently an assistant professor in the Political Science department of

and conjugal violence against women.

to viewed as the problem as opposed to the behaviour of the men.

Publications Vol.9 No.2 (2008): 145-64.

book chapters and several books on the politics of gender in Canada.

of the neoliberal project.” (Brodie, 152)

scholarship with high academic standards.

elderly.” (Brodie, 159)

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