Unveiling Injustice: The Plight of vulnerable women in Neoliberal Canada

This podcast episode discusses the impact of neoliberalism on vulnerable women in Canada, focusing on a case study of single mothers in Ontario in the early 1990s. Neoliberalism promotes free market policies and often leaves vulnerable individuals behind. It strips away resources from women, particularly single mothers, and favors enforcing kinship and child support from absent fathers. Neoliberalism marginalizes single mothers and devalues their roles as caregivers. The podcast also explores the gender division of labor and the negative effects of neoliberalism on women's unpaid work. Feminist theorists argue for gender-inclusive policies and a reformation of societal expectations of gender roles. In Ontario, a shift towards neoliberalism in the mid-1990s led to significant changes in social services and income supports, disproportionately affecting single mothers. The government aimed to run the province more like a business, adopting policies similar to those of Margaret Thatcher an Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unveiling Injustice, the podcast where we dive deep into the issues that often lurk in the shadows of society. I'm your host, Olivia, and today I will be shedding light on a topic that hits close to home for many women, the plight of vulnerable women in neoliberal Canada. Now, when I'm discussing vulnerable women, it is not simply a headline or a statistic. I'm discussing the lives of real people, individuals who are forced to navigate a landscape shaped by economic policies that often leave them behind. In this episode, we are going to critically analyze neoliberalism in Canada and how it impacts the lives of vulnerable women. This analysis will be done through a case study which deeply examines the role of women, specifically mothers, during the shift to neoliberalism in Ontario in the early 1990s. The case study will be followed up by a question and answer period in which I will answer questions about how these cases relate to neoliberalism, what they tell us about neoliberalism, and furthermore, why it matters. So grab yourself a snack, settle in, while I shine a spotlight on the stories and struggles of women in neoliberal Canada. Before we dive into this intense subject matter, I would like to give a brief background on neoliberalism, as well as the approaches that I will be taking throughout this podcast. Neoliberalism is understood as a set of discursive and institutional formations that embrace and promote the free market as the superior organizing for human life. It is most often associated with public policies such as privatization, budget cuts, and the liberalization of trade barriers, as well as the International Monetary Fund, commonly referred to as the IMF, and the World Bank. Author and anthropologist Catherine King Fisher notes that emerging neoliberalism entailed a radical departure from liberal progressive forms of governance, which conceptualized and responded structurally and collectively to the social ills, and towards a form of governance that highlighted individual casualties and decentralized and individualized remedies for social problems. With that said, throughout this podcast, I will be analyzing neoliberalism through a post-structuralist approach, which focuses on the ideas, identities, and subjectivities that emerge under a neoliberal regime. Additionally, Neoliberalism critically analyzes the logics of neoliberalism and the subjects that are created. While neoliberalism is framed through a post-structural lens, this whole podcast will be situated within the larger scope of intersectional feminism. Utilizing intersectional feminism as a key tool throughout these case studies will allow for a further understanding of the vast marginalization experienced by women under neoliberal regimes. Many have greatly benefited from living in a welfare state, whether that be through universally sensitized health care, education systems, retirement benefits, social housing, and much more. The benefits of a welfare state are bountiful. However, there are many people who can attribute their very survival to the welfare assistance that they have received. Many women, primarily single mothers with low income, seek the support of welfare to keep a roof over the head of her child and food on the table. These are the very services that neoliberalism wishes to strip away and the very people that neoliberalism wishes to ignore. Poor single mothers in pre-reform welfare systems are retrospectively reconstructed as dependent on the state, and by virtue of that dependence, neither sovereign nor self-actualized. Neoliberalism does not give these mothers the tools necessary for their survival. It strips away their resources and places that dependency in another place. Neoliberalism is in favor of efforts to enforce kinship as an alternative to the redistribution of income by the state. An example of this is unmarried mothers who sought welfare from the state should be obligated to first seek support from an absent father via child support orders before the state is to distribute any funds. This enforcement of kinship with absent fathers is extremely triggering and possibly dangerous for many women. Being a single mother is rarely the first choice of women, and many have been forced to take on parenting alone due to domestic abuse and child abuse. This puts women in an immensely precarious position when having to personally seek child support from their absent partner. Single mothers are often the targets of discrimination through neoliberalism, as the traditional nuclear family is the unit in which this ideology upholds. The legal and scientific conception of a nuclear family is a man and a wife living under one roof with their dependent children who have not yet gone out for themselves or created a household of their own. This is the family unit that single mothers do not fit into. While seemingly gender neutral, the shift to neoliberalism, as Catherine Kingfisher states, entails a double bind for single mothers reliant on welfare. They are simultaneously low-paid workers who cannot afford for someone else to look after their children, and they are single mothers, both attributes that neoliberalism looks down upon. The 1992 World Bank report argued that women must not be regarded as mere recipients of public support. They are first and foremost economic agents. In this transformation which is witnessing exponential growth in the feminization of poverty, low-income and poor women in both developed and developing countries are being reconstituted in new political discourses and practices as already or potentially able-bodied workers and entrepreneurs, while other identities, in particular those of mother and dependent housewife, take on an increasingly negative salience in this new neoliberal society. It is no longer enough to be a mother and raise family, or a housewife and maintain a household. While neoliberalism aims for all citizens to be participating in labor to drive the market, it ignores the unpaid labor done by women that is furthermore imposed upon them by society. The practices of high-power businessmen praised by neoliberalism are made possible due to a woman behind the scenes who does the childcare, entertaining and sustaining, while also often working a job of their own throughout the day. Kingfisher discusses two prominent claims regarding the gender division of labor in the context of the restructuring of the welfare state. Firstly, as mentioned prior, the public realm of paid work depends on women's unpaid work in the private sphere. Secondly, it is women in particular who must negotiate the gap between the market and non-market structures by engaging in part-time work, unpaid at-home work, casualized labor, and by stretching to meet more needs with fewer resources. There have been many calls from feminist theorists arguing the needs of women under neoliberalism. The most prominent of these calls have been that the restructuring of society cannot be gender-neutral. Government policies need to ensure the appreciation of gender differences, the nature of relationships between men and women, and their different social realities. These calls to action all stem from the feminist argument that not only must neoliberal policies be returned to an inclusive citizenship, but the conceptualization of individualism, victim-blaming, and societal expectations of gender roles also demand reformation as a return to proper function. Neoliberalism's prioritization of the market and market logics over the public sphere and practices of collective intervention, and all the other major projects of neoliberalism, have been identified as having disproportionate and deleterious impacts on women, especially those marginalized by economic and social difference. Now, with a broad understanding of the detrimental impacts that neoliberalism has had on women, I would like to focus on the province of Ontario and its shift towards neoliberalism in the mid-1990s. In May of 1995, a majority-progressive Conservative government was elected in Ontario, led by Mike Harris. This majority government quickly adopted a neoliberal economic approach, which drastically overhauled Ontario's welfare state. Premier Mike Harris enacted major changes in most areas of public life, focusing on decreasing taxes, reducing the debt and deficit, decreasing government provision of social services and income supports, and reducing the role of government in regulating capital, especially by weakening the labour market protection. Harris claimed that his overall vision was to run the government more like a business. The policy decisions in Ontario were borrowed heavily from the other models of subnational and national state restructuring under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States. The province of Ontario took an active role in reducing the extent to which it would shield citizens from the risk of capitalism. This was done by re-regulating the conditions of paid work, union legislation, income support, housing support, education and child care. Those in Ontario reliant on income from the government, in combination with a low income from market sources, especially from female wages, fared the worst. And to no surprise, those reliant were overwhelmingly made up of single mothers. As the welfare state was restructured and social services moved towards increasingly minimal provision, many were forced to juggle the greater demands on them to take up costs and care work no longer provided to them. The combination of more insecure income sources and an increasingly inaccessible and ungenerous social support network placed disproportionate demands on those who were already stretched. Research on the impacts of this shift to neoliberalism in Ontario found that those who were forced to rely on social assistance or Ontario Disability Support Payment noted that support levels were absolutely inadequate for meeting basic accommodation, food, transportation and living expenses. Furthermore, it is noted that women are not being supported in their desire and efforts to become employed. Scholar Kendra Coulter details that due to the shift in welfare policy and the scarcity of income from the state, many women were forced to return to abusive relationships as it was often seen as the best decision in this social context of horrifically constrained options. Thus, the Ontario shift to neoliberalism and reduced welfare policies are forcing women back into dangerous and abusive situations. A study conducted by Kate Besenson focused on a number of households in Ontario and analyzed how neoliberal policies affect them. This is an excellent look into the real impacts that households are facing in the wake of neoliberalism. Of the eight households in which the most significant source of income came from a government transfer, women headed six of them. For these households, managing various income sources was an additional struggle and the presence of young children simply heightened this struggle. Besenson notes that the need for social services when they are cut, eliminated or simply not provided does not disappear, but its provision is often shifted onto the work of primarily the women in the household who may or may not have the time or energy to cope with the extra work. In addition to children, there are many others whose care falls predominantly on women. With the restructuring of the healthcare system in Ontario, many women were forced to take on a role of care aide for family members who are needing long-term care, like elderly relatives. This imposes a significant burden on those who cannot afford to pay for private care. Not only does this type of care impose a massive financial burden on those providing care, additionally it imposes a large mental and physical burden. It is unrealistic, yet promoted by neoliberalism, for a woman to either come home from her full day of work and care for her children or relatives, or spend an entire day caring for them. Due to this neoliberal shift in Ontario, many women experience intense burnout caused by a need to pick up the work that the state has left behind. Ontario is an excellent example of the contradiction imposed upon many by neoliberalism to pursue profit and also social reproduction. This is a contradiction that is exceptionally damaging for women. As mentioned prior, under neoliberalism, it is not enough to be a mother caring for her children, whether that be with a father present or not. Furthermore, it is not enough to be career-driven and not wish to build the traditional nuclear family that neoliberalism promotes. This is truly an example of the phrase, you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't. Now in this last section, I will be answering two very important questions. Firstly, I will answer the question of what does this case study reveal about neoliberalism? And secondly, I will answer the overall question of why does this matter? Alright, let's get into the first question. The case study discussed throughout this podcast on the shift to neoliberalism in Ontario is integral to the story of neoliberalism. This case study exposes the gender inequality, exploitation of women, and complete disregard for poor single mothers that occurred in Ontario. While this was experienced in Ontario as a result of the neoliberal regime, this has been experienced globally. Neoliberalism uplifts an ideal subject that is deeply embedded in racism and sexism. The ideal neoliberal subject is a rich white man who is supported by his wife, participates in the market, and does not rely on any aspect of welfare. Women, racialized groups, and minorities are all ignored by neoliberalism. Therefore, with all things considered, this case study tells us that neoliberalism is deeply embedded in racism and sexism, uplifting this ideal neoliberal subject, which women are disregarded from in all facets, but to be the wife standing behind a successful businessman. Additionally, this case study exemplifies the many hats that women must wear due to the reconfiguration of the welfare state and how this is exploitative and dangerous in many scenarios. Moving on to what I consider the most important question, why does this matter? Well, I could think of a million reasons why this matters, but I will spare you a few of them. This matters because for centuries women have been fighting for equal rights as men and for voices to be heard. While many facets of neoliberalism claim gender neutrality in which men and women are placed on the same level, this makes no regard for the hardships and social differences that women experience. We have fought for equal rights with an understanding of our past. We have fought for a voice which is not to be stifled by a man. Neoliberalism has enforced a society which disproportionately affects women in all walks of life. If you are a strong, driven woman with a successful career and no children, well, in order to be supported by neoliberalism, you also need to have a successful family and continue reproduction because that's what your body's made for. If you are resilient women who escaped a domestically abusive relationship with your children and need a little bit of help from the government, well, you aren't participating in the market by having a successful career, and you don't have the ideal nuclear family that's praised by neoliberalism. Under this regime, no woman will win, and that is incredibly important to talk about. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this podcast. I really hope you enjoyed.