The gendered discourse of war: Canada post 9/11

Spanner, Leigh Anne (2013) The gendered discourse of war: Canada post 9/11. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis considers whether Canada engaged in a gendered discourse on the "War on Terror". Gender refers to the social meanings attributed to perceived sex differences and not the biological differences between males and females. Gender norms are produced and reproduced by dualisms such as aggressive/passive, and rational/emotional, where the first term is associated with masculinity while the second with femininity. The higher value is associated to the first term, or masculine one, perpetuating unequal relations between genders. The aforementioned question is answered by undertaking a critical discourse analysis of the official debates of the House of Commons (Hansard) in the week following the attacks of September 11th, 2001. It is found that Canada's rhetoric on security, its consideration of political responses, and construction of its national identity in contrast to the enemy makes use of gendered discourses.

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