Shifting Representations of Citizenship: Canadian Politics of "Women" and "Children"

This article offers an analytical framework for understanding changing citizenship regimes and illustrates how recent shifts in citizenship discourses and practices have affected women in Canada. It reviews contemporary Canadian history and traces changing processes whereby representations involving women, their rights and needs, have been sidelined and replaced by those of children. It concentrates on one issue that provides a cornerstone for many women's full citizenship, economic autonomy, and well-being: that of child care. We track what has happened to this concern, along with women's claims for gender equality and recognition as child poverty becomes a major preoccupation and investing in children becomes a top priority. With the move away from a space for women's voices toward representations of the child, especially the poor child, we show how the current citizenship regime has effectively struck women's full citizenship from the political agenda.