Comment comprendre les transformations du mouvement des femmes au Québec? : analyse des répercussions de l’antiféminisme
The women’s movement in Quebec has known significant transformations during the last decades. Several causes have been put forward to explain these changes, such as globalization, neoliberalism or internal causes. In the 1980s, there has been a backlash against the women’s movement in the province of Quebec and a specific form of anti-feminism emerged, masculinism. This backlash has changed the context in which the women’s movement has evolved. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the impact of anti-feminism on the transformations of the women’s movement.  In order to analyze the interactions between the women’s movement and anti-feminism, we study the anti-feminist discourse in the media from 1985 to 2009. First, we analyze the masculinist’s thematics contained in the newspapers La Presse and Le Soleil during this period. Second, we analyze various publications (annual reports, la Petite Presse and le Féminisme en bref) of the Fédération des femmes du Québec in order to see if the women’s movement has changed its analysis, strategies and actions in response to this backlash. Finally, using the theory of resource mobilization and the countermovements’ approach, we study the interactions between the women’s movement and masculinism. We come to the conclusion that there are interactions between the women’s movement and the countermovement (anti-feminism). Furthermore, we see that the emergence of anti-feminism has changed the analysis, strategies and actions of the women’s movement in response to this backlash.
Féminisme Fédération des femmes du Québec Québec Women's movement Feminism Anti-feminism Masculinism Media Social movements Countermovements La Presse Le Soleil