From the Invisible Hand to the Invisible Woman: A Gender Perspective on the Tax Policy Discourse on Social Tax Expenditures

Abstract

Liberal welfare states tend to use more social tax expenditures (STEs) for the provision of social welfare benefits. These benefits are incorporated into tax legislations, which are usually considered neutral and especially gender-neutral. However, they can fail to consider some characteristics of the situation that women face and their role and, therefore, have the possibility to marginalize women and be an obstacle to gender equality. By conducting a historical discourse analysis in Canada (1967–2012), this article shows that the tax policy discourse in relation to STEs is not gender-neutral. In constructing STEs, various assumptions are made about women and their role in society: they are housewives, workers, or to be eventually completely evacuated from the discourse to the profit of children and the family.