"Other" Voices: Historical Essays on Saskatchewan Women

Brenda Reed is the curriculum and reference services librarian at the
Queen’s University Education Library.

These nine scholarly essays provide information about the lives of
ordinary Saskatchewan women over the past 100 years. An introductory
essay by the editors states their intention to “[bring] together for
the first time in a single collection of essays, individuals and groups
of Saskatchewan women frequently overlooked or neglected by writers of
Saskatchewan history.” De Brou and Moffatt place this collection
within the debate over the centrality of gender as a determinant in
women’s lives, and the selected essays support their argument that
ethnicity, class, and religion also influence women’s history.

The collection is arranged in roughly chronological order following
Aileen Moffatt’s helpful survey of Saskatchewan women’s
historiography. Moffatt situates Saskatchewan women’s history within a
Canadian framework and identifies the collection as part of its third
stage (the earlier stages focused on studies of prominent women and on
women as a distinct group). She contends that these essays cross the
boundary of the second stage with new approaches that value diversity in
women’s history.

The first three essays examine the role of ethnicity in women’s lives
by looking at the experiences of Swedish, French-speaking, and Jewish
women, respectively, who immigrated to Saskatchewan in the late 19th or
early 20th centuries. Issues of class and influence are considered in
two essays that highlight women’s participation in public affairs. The
last three essayists rely on oral histories to uncover the experiences
of women who are often ignored. Black-and-white photographs provide
visual points of reference for the essays, and a subject index is
included.

The audience for these accessible accounts extends beyond the academic
historian to readers who enjoy social history and biography. All
Canadian libraries, but especially those in Saskatchewan, should
purchase this valuable resource.