Resisting Discrimination: Women from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean and the Women's Movement in Canada

Shelley Butler teaches anthropology at York University.

This book explores how immigrant women from Asia, Africa, and the
Caribbean have experienced and responded to racist exclusions in
Canadian society, including the mainstream women’s movement. The scope
of Vijay Agnew’s scholarship is broad; she discusses the history and
development of Canadian feminist theory and practice, critiques by women
of color on the ethnocentrism of feminist organizing, immigrant
women’s experiences of racism, and the ways in which these women have
actively resisted these conditions by developing their own
community-based organizations and social services.

Agnew succeeds at providing concrete examples of abstract ideas, such
as the many ways in which race, gender, and class intersect in our
lives. Discussions about how racist immigration policies and job
segregation have affected women, for example, demonstrate this broad
theoretical point. The historical perspective is also useful for
understanding contemporary conflicts, misunderstandings, and tensions in
the women’s movement. For example, we learn of how early feminists
reproduced racial prejudices and classist stereotypes about the poor
while fighting for their rights.

This book provides sensitive accounts of immigrant women’s lives,
especially with regard to such issues as language and training barriers,
and perspectives on pro-choice rhetoric and wife abuse. Agnew shows how
community-based organizations run by women from Asia, Africa, and the
Caribbean provide culturally sensitive services and have also become
forums for advocacy, challenging the mainstream women’s movement. But
she also notes that these organizations are constantly compromised as
they struggle to secure funding from government agencies.

Finally, one of Agnew’s most interesting insights is the way in which
struggles over differences and diversity in the women’s movement
reflect broader debates in Canada about how to live with heterogeneity.
This book will be especially useful to readers involved in feminist and
Canadian studies, and in social services and community organizing in
Canada.