Investigating implicit biases around race and gender in Canadian counterterrorism
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702020976615 |
| Author | Rachel Schmidt |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essay |
Scholarly Essay
Investigating implicit
biases around race and
gender in Canadian
counterterrorism
Rachel Schmidt
University of Denver
Abstract
A growing body of research on terrorism and countering violent extremism (CVE) has
increasingly questioned the lack of attention to—and myths around—women involved
in extremist and political violence, while other research has drawn attention to racial
and religious stereotypes that affect national security policies and practices worldwide.
While Canada is often heralded as a global leader in multiculturalism and gender equal-
ity, the nation’s national security sector still faces significant challenges around implicit
biases related to race and gender. This study asks whether gender and racial stereo-
types impeding counterterrorism and CVE in other countries are also affecting policies
and practices in Canada. Using twenty-six in-depth interviews with practitioners, police
officers, academics, and government officials from seven major cities across Canada,
this paper argues that persistent gender and racial stereotypes are indeed a key chal-
lenge impeding Canada’s efforts to adequately address radicalization into and disen-
gagement from extremist violence.
Keywords
Counterterrorism, violent extremism, gender, implicit bias, Canada, countering violent
extremism
Corresponding author:
Rachel Schmidt, Si
eCh
eou-Kang Center for International Security & Diplomacy, Josef Korbel School of
International Studies, University of Denver, 2201 South Gaylord Street, Denver, CO, 80208, USA.
Email: rachel.schmidt@carleton.ca
International Journal
2020, Vol. 75(4) 594–613
!The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702020976615
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A growing body of research on terrorism and countering violent extremism
(CVE) has increasingly questioned the lack of attention to, and myths around,
women involved in extremist and political violence,
1
while other research has
drawn attention to racial and religious stereotypes that are affecting national
security policies and practices in Canada and around the world.
2
For example,
when women are involved in violence, they receive more media attention than
male counterparts due to the dramatic departure from established gender norms.
3
But these narratives of deviance often emphasize stereotypes of women as emo-
tional, not political, easily manipulated, deranged, or just unintelligent. Similarly,
repeated profiling of Muslim individuals in terrorism investigations, alongside
frequent portrayals of racialized terrorists in the media, reinforces biases that
darker-skinned populations are more threatening and can obscure the threat of
white supremacist violence.
4
Of course, these stereotypes frequently intersect. Racialized men receive a dis-
proportionate level of attention from security services worldwide, including in
Canada.
5
The trope of oppressed Muslim women is also common in “War
on Terror” rhetoric, with repeated themes of “empowering Muslim women” in
Western-led counterterrorism (CT) programs.
6
In fact, the very definition of ter-
rorism is prone to gender and racial biases, with the vast majority of CVE and CT
attention (including by participants in this study) focused on Islamist-inspired male
extremists and much less attention, until fairly recently, on other forms of terror-
ism, such as right-wing and “incel” violence.
7
While Canada is often heralded as a global leader in multiculturalism and
gender equality, the nation’s CT practices still face significant challenges in
terms of implicit biases (i.e., learned cognitive biases that occur at an unconscious
1. For example: Joana Cook and Gina Vale, “From Daesh to ‘diaspora’ II: The challenges posed by
women and minors after the fall of the caliphate,” CTC Sentinel 12, no. 6 (2019): 30–45; Rachel
Schmidt, “Duped: Examining gender stereotypes in disengagement and deradicalization practices,”
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2020; and Laura Sjoberg and Caron E. Gentry, Women, Gender,
and Terrorism (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2011).
2. Ratna Ghosh,W.Y. Alice Chan, Ashley Manuel, and Maihemuti Dilimulati, “Can education
counter violent religious extremism?” Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 23, no. 2 (2017): 117–33;
Kathy Laster and Edna Erez, “Sisters in terrorism? Exploding stereotypes,” Women and Criminal
Justice 25, no. 1–2 (2015): 83–99.
3. Katherine E. Brown, “Muriel’s wedding: News media representations of Europe’s first female
suicide terrorist,” European Journal of Cultural Studies 14, no. 6 (2011): 705–26.
4. John Paul Wilson, Kurt Hugenberg, and Nicholas O. Rule, “Racial bias in judgments of physical
size and formidability: From size to threat,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 113, no. 1
(2017): 59–80.
5. Canadian Civil Liberties Association, “A recent history of racial profiling and policing,” 2020,
https://ccla.org/a-recent-history-of-racial-profiling-and-policing/ (accessed accessed 2 January
2020).
6. Nancy W. Jabbra, “Women, words and war: Explaining 9/11 and justifying U.S. military action in
Afghanistan and Iraq,” Journal of International Women’s Studies 8, no. 1 (2006): 236–55.
7. “Incel” stands for “involuntary celibate” and is an online movement of mostly white, mostly het-
erosexual men who believe that women deny them sex because they are not attractive enough. See:
Bruce Hoffman, Jacob Ware, and Ezra Shapiro, “Assessing the threat of Incel violence,” Studies in
Conflict and Terrorism 43, no. 7 (2020): 565–87.
Schmidt 595
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