Women, National Identity, and Feminism: The case of Québec

Independence movements exist in many sub-national territories in established democracies such as Belgium, Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom. A common finding has been a gender gap where women are less likely than men to support independence. In some cases, the independence movement has tried to rectify this situation by adopting a strong commitment toward gender equality policies and by aligning themselves with the women’s movement to attract women’s vote. Little is known, however, about whether this strategy is successful. Are women supporting gender equality principles and/or identifying as feminists also more likely to identify with the independence movement? In this paper, we seek to provide an answer to this question by investigating the case of the province of Québec in Canada. Historically, the Québec’s women’s movement has been influenced by the national question. Women’s liberation from patriarchy has been viewed to be only possible through the independence of Québec. Even recently, leaders of the independence movement have appealed to gender equality principles to argue against Canadian multiculturalism, which can be perceived as a threat to the distinct national identity in Québec. These recent developments in the relationship between gender equality attitudes and national identity may highlight divergences in the conception of feminism. We posit that older generations of women may conceive of feminism in terms of strict equality between women and men, which can easily align with a national identity based on the French language. On the other hand, younger feminists may have a more intersectional view of gender equality and put greater emphasis on equality across races, ethnicities and sexual orientations, which may clash with a more traditional definition of the francophone Québec identity. Consequently, we expect that the independence movement’s strategy of appealing to gender equality to attract women’s support is not successful for all types of feminists.