Demanding Equality
One Hundred Years of Canadian Feminism
Published on 24. June 2021
Book
Hardback
484 pages
978-0-7748-6606-4 (ISBN)
Description
For one hundred years women fashioned different dreams of social transformation in their search for equality, autonomy, and dignity; yet what is Canadian feminism?
Demanding Equality offers illustrations of feminist thought and organizing from mid-nineteenth-century, Enlightenment-inspired writing to the multi-issue movement of the 1980s. Broadening our definition of feminism - and recognizing that its political, cultural, and social dimensions are entangled - Joan Sangster explores the different pathways pursued to gain equality. She challenges the popular "wave" theory, concluding that feminist activism was continuous, despite changing significantly across decades.
Demanding Equality presents a picture of a heterogeneous movement characterized by both alliances and fierce internal debates. This comprehensive rear-view look at feminism in all its political guises encourages a wider public conversation about what Canadian feminism has been, is, and should be.
Demanding Equality offers illustrations of feminist thought and organizing from mid-nineteenth-century, Enlightenment-inspired writing to the multi-issue movement of the 1980s. Broadening our definition of feminism - and recognizing that its political, cultural, and social dimensions are entangled - Joan Sangster explores the different pathways pursued to gain equality. She challenges the popular "wave" theory, concluding that feminist activism was continuous, despite changing significantly across decades.
Demanding Equality presents a picture of a heterogeneous movement characterized by both alliances and fierce internal debates. This comprehensive rear-view look at feminism in all its political guises encourages a wider public conversation about what Canadian feminism has been, is, and should be.
Reviews / Votes
"There are few, if any, historians better placed than Joan Sangster to write a history of a century of feminism in Canada... Demanding Equality is a book that is at once capacious in its scope and accessibly written." - Magda Fahrni, Universite du Quebec a Montreal (Labour / Le Travail) Sangster's precisely written yet wideranging book is a tour de force that chronicles the struggles for 'equality, autonomy, and dignity' in all of their rich complexity.- Elaine Coburn, York University (Literary Review of Canada) "Demanding Equality is a formidable book, wide in scope, commendably readable, expansive in content, and convincing in analysis."
- Rebecca Priegert Coulter, Professor Emerita, University of Western Ontario. (University of Toronto Quarterly) "In Demanding Equality, Joan Sangster demonstrates the confidence and virtuosity of a well-seasoned scholar at the top of her game."
- Sarah Glassford, University of Windsor (Social History) [Demanding Equality] is an impressively balanced account that will undoubtedly become required reading for gender and women's history classes across the country. - Catherine Carstairs, University of Guelph (JACANZ, Vol. 1, Issue 2)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Vancouver
Canada
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
With dust jacket
Illustrations
60 b&w photos, graphics, and cartoons
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
880 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7748-6606-4 (9780774866064)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Joan Sangster is Vanier Professor Emeritus at Trent University and a past president of the Canadian Historical Association/Societe historique du Canada. She is the author of One Hundred Years of Struggle: The History of Women and the Vote in Canada; Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada; and The Iconic North: Cultural Constructions of Aboriginal Life in Postwar Canada.
Content
Introduction
1 Spreading the Word of Women's Emancipation
2 The Origins of Socialist and Labour Feminism
3 Feminism, Democracy, and Suffrage
4 Reform Feminism and Women's Right to Work
5 Agrarian, Labour, and Socialist Feminism after the First World War
6 Feminism and the Party Question
7 Feminism, War, and Peace
8 Feminism in a Cold War Climate
9 Liberating Feminisms
10 Feminist Organizing in the 1970s and 1980s
11 Afterword: Feminist Challenges of the 1990s and Beyond
Notes; Index
1 Spreading the Word of Women's Emancipation
2 The Origins of Socialist and Labour Feminism
3 Feminism, Democracy, and Suffrage
4 Reform Feminism and Women's Right to Work
5 Agrarian, Labour, and Socialist Feminism after the First World War
6 Feminism and the Party Question
7 Feminism, War, and Peace
8 Feminism in a Cold War Climate
9 Liberating Feminisms
10 Feminist Organizing in the 1970s and 1980s
11 Afterword: Feminist Challenges of the 1990s and Beyond
Notes; Index