2004 Jill Vickers Prize

Winner: Isabelle Fortier (École nationale d’administration publique), Éric Montpetit (Université de Montréal) and Francesca Scala (Concordia University)

Democratic Practices vs. Expertise: the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and Canada’s Policy on Reproductive Technology (2003 CPSA conference paper)

Excerpt from jury report: The jury felt that the authors had done an excellent case study of the role of the National Action Committee (NAC) in relation to federal policy-making in the area of assisted reproductive technology (ART). Their analysis of this case study developed important insights about the challenges and contradictions of representation. Organizations, such as NAC, are confronted with the double challenge of representing their members in ways that are democratic, transparent and inclusive while at the same time representing the interests of their members in trying to influence state policy-making. Feminist principles of the importance of women’s experiential knowledge confront the priority given by the State to professional knowledge and expertise. The paper makes an important contribution to our understanding of the interrelations of gender and politics, of the dilemmas of feminist representation, of the strategic challenges to women’s organizations in their relations to their members and to the Canadian state. As the authors write, the case study “illustrates the difficulty of reconciling participatory practices with institutional structures of government that continue to be governed by technocratic principles of expertise, efficiency and control.” In analyzing the tensions, contradictions and dilemmas involved for feminist organizations in their double representation with their members and with the state, the paper by Fortier, Montpetit and Scala merits the Jill Vickers Prize 2004 for carrying on the tradition of insightful scholarship, strategic vision and social pertinence honoured by this Prize.