Comment le projet de laïcité de l'État québécois est défavorable aux femmes : l'urgence de briser une évidence
Given the persistence of patriarchy within the majority Quebec religious group, Catholicism, this thesis defends a counterintuitive idea: the affirmation of the secular nature of the Quebec state is harmful to women. Feminist analyses of political liberalism and its genealogy by Michel Foucault show that secularism has developed in the denial of the citizenship of women believers. The separation of religion and state and neutrality has created an area of lawlessness for women believers. The organization of liberal democracy, inspired by John Rawls in the Western culture, defended the notion of religious freedom. Analyzed from a postcolonial feminist perspective, religious freedom protects the privilege of men to exercise their domination in religious groups. For women, this freedom can be summed up in the possibility of leaving the group. It denies the agentivity of women believers and presupposes that living a religious affiliation is equivalent to renouncing the right to equality. It seems natural that women believers should refrain from using the legal tools that have advanced women's rights in other areas. In addition, the current debates on secularism on the management of religious diversity overshadow the practices of the Quebec state. This, whether through State feminism, associative law, the recognition of canon law by the judiciary or the organization of public services, provides instruments that support discriminatory practices against women. State intervention to enforce the right to equality in the religious sphere seems inconceivable in the legal tradition. However, it is possible to think otherwise about secularism by considering the State's commitments to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and by noting the challenge to patriarchy by women believers within religious groups.
feminism agency catholicism liberalism Quebec state law citizenship equality CEDAW secularism