The importance that the Quebec nation attaches to equality between women and men is one of the reasons for the Law on the secularism of the State (“Law 21”). The equality of all citizens is also one of the principles on which the law is based. However, religious symbols are, with a few exceptions, resolutely differentiated for women and for men and each of them conveys a distinct social status, values, roles and responsibilities, which exacerbates their sexist character.
Thus, by prohibiting the display of religious symbols by State employees in a position of authority, Law 21 ensures that it does not promote sexist signs that are contrary to equality between women and men.
This vision reflects the universalist feminist approach, which usually refers to substantive equality between women (of all origins or conditions) and men. The “universalist feminists” thus oppose confinement in a cultural or religious category which would limit the access to emancipation which other women can enjoy.
This is the case, for example, of the Canadian Yasmine Mohammed (author of Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam) and the French Rachel Khan (author of Racy and laureate of the 2021 Secularity Prize of the Laïcité République Committee) who reject a religious, cultural or racial compartmentalization which, in fact, undermines access to universal rights. According to them, taking culture or religion into account when it comes to women’s rights results in some women being locked into a religious patriarchy, which is contrary to gender equality.
Gender disparity in wearing religious symbols
Some intersectional feminists, who take into account the particularities of all women and defend the choices of each, argue that Law 21 “penalizes” women more than men. However, it is rather the disparity in the wearing of religious symbols between the sexes, inherent to the different religions, which means that the law could have a different impact on women than on men.
In the Muslim religion, for example, it is women who wear more visible religious symbols (the hijab, for example). However, it is not the law that discriminates, but sexist religious demands.
Let us recall that by acceding to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women1, Quebec is committed to putting measures in place to achieve de facto equality between women and men. But ordinary sexism2, or the trivialization of attitudes, behaviors or symbols that reinforce stereotypes or inferior women is also a form of discrimination to be eliminated.
Of course, it is not the role of the state to regulate sexist religious practices. It is nevertheless its duty to ensure that its institutions are free from sexism, since it is contrary to the achievement of de facto equality between women and men.
In this sense, the Law on the secularism of the State, which prohibits the wearing of religious symbols by state employees in positions of authority, is resolutely a feminist law!