Women in Canadian Society

Sara Stratton teaches history at York University.

At first glance, this collection of essays appears to have no theme
other than the fact that each essay is about women. The introduction’s
labored explanation that all the essays deal with questions of women’s
agency gives little reassurance. The collection’s point of departure
is supposed to be two articles on the 1968 hearings of the Royal
Commission on the Status of Women in Canada. A series of articles
examining women’s agency follows. However interesting the material is,
the collection’s scope is too wide, and the disparate essays are
unconnected, save for their rather broad common theme.

The collection is multidisciplinary, with contributions from
historians, sociologists, political scientists, and literary theorists.
There are insightful analyses of the Royal Commission and how it
redefined perceptions of women, for good and bad. Three essays examine
women’s political power in different arenas: electoral politics,
community organizing, and moral reform movements. Another probes the
cultural barriers to female empowerment among South Asian immigrant
women, and there is a valuable comparative study of state limits to
female autonomy in Mexico and in Canada. A number of literary studies
round out the collection.

Readers looking for a definitive collection on the topic of women’s
empowerment in Canada will not find it here. This book is perhaps best
looked at as a work in progress.