How Am I Going To Do This?

Critical Feminist Theory

At the heart of this research is a commitment to critical feminist theory. This framework doesn’t just ask where are the women?—it asks deeper questions about power, structure, and the values that shape who belongs, who is heard, and who is erased. It helps me examine not only the underrepresentation of women in the Canadian Armed Forces, but the systematic exclusion of femininity—in policy, culture, leadership, and daily operations.

🔍 What Is Critical Feminist Theory?

Critical feminist theory is a way of understanding the world that challenges dominant power structures, especially patriarchy, heteronormativity, and institutional norms that present themselves as neutral or objective. Unlike more liberal forms of feminism that might focus on equality through representation or access, critical feminism asks:

What values are being protected by the institution?
How is power organized and maintained?
Whose ways of knowing, being, and leading are considered legitimate?
What gets erased when femininity is treated as incompatible with strength, authority, or strategy?

It is not satisfied with simply adding women into existing systems—it demands that we question how those systems are built, and whom they are built for.

💡 Why Critical Feminist Theory Matters in Military Research

The military is a highly structured, historically masculinized institution. It values discipline, control, aggression, and a very specific kind of leadership. These values aren’t gender-neutral—even when women are recruited, they’re often expected to adapt to masculine norms rather than bring their full selves into the space.

The Chief of the Defence Staff’s 25% target for women’s representation may look progressive on the surface, but critical feminist theory helps me ask:

What kind of femininity is allowed to exist within the CAF?
Are women being included only if they perform according to masculinized standards?
Is the goal representation, or transformation?

✊ A Feminist Commitment to Transformation

Critical feminist theory isn’t just an academic framework—it’s a political and ethical commitment. It calls me to reflect on my own position as someone who served in the military, and now critiques it. It reminds me that this research isn’t about fixing women to fit the system—it’s about challenging the system to value care, collaboration, empathy, and emotional labour as strengths, not weaknesses.

This theory gives me the tools to not just analyze what’s happening—but to imagine what could be different.

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