A critical discourse analysis of New Zealand government policy: Women as mothers and workers

SynopsisThis article critically analyses a New Zealand government policy document aimed at improving outcomes for women to explore how women's identities as mothers and workers are discursively constructed. It is argued that policy influences women's lives through the promotion of certain discourses that sanction or restrict women's choices. The policy draws on feminist discourses which both value women's traditional roles and aim to increase their participation in the public sphere. The analysis demonstrates however that although freedom to choose is central to the policy's vision, paid work is consistently privileged over caregiving. Motherhood is all but invisible and is constituted as inevitable and undesirable, while paid work is constituted as essential to individual well-being and a duty of citizenship. The analysis demonstrates that despite drawing upon feminist discourses to warrant its vision, the policy is driven by capitalist goals of increased productivity and economic growth rather than the needs of women.