Demanding Equality
One Hundred Years of Canadian Feminism
Published on 24. February 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
484 pages
978-0-7748-6607-1 (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
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
60 b&w photos, graphics, and cartoons
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
720 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7748-6607-1 (9780774866071)
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