Faces of Feminism: Portraits of Women across Canada

Sara Stratton teaches history at York University.

This is a beautifully crafted book—a collection of black-and-white
photographs and biographical essays sandwiched between short essays on
the nature of feminism and the process of making the book (rendered on
creamy vellum). It belongs on the coffee table of every historian of
women in Canada.

Harris traveled the country from 1984 to 1989, photographing the faces
of grassroots feminism in Canada. She covers every province, but both
Yukon and the Northwest Territories are ignored. All aspects of the
female experience are reflected: black, white, Asian, Native, immigrant,
married, single mothers, rape and abuse survivors, lesbians, artists,
poets, professors, prostitutes, abortion rights activists,
environmentalists, and musicians are all included. So is GAP (Girls Are
People), a group of 8- to 16-year-olds in Brandon, Manitoba. The utterly
unknown stand alongside the likes of Conservative politician and
philanthropist Nancy Jackman.

As Angela Miles points out in her introductory essay, “this book is
about sisterhood within diversity, about solidarity without
homogeneity.” Harris has captured some truly striking photographs, and
with her lens has crafted a beautiful monument to the diversity of
contemporary Canadian feminism.