The Women's Movement: Then and Now

Karen Andrews, a human rights activist, was with the Toronto Public Library.

The Women’s Movement: Then and Now very briefly summarizes the history of the women’s movement concentrating on the period between the Industrial Revolution and the 1960s. It also presents an overview and an analysis of some of the socio-political struggles that are being fought by today’s movement: choice, pornography, sexist language, sexual harassment and so on.

Dumont contends that the women’s movement as a historical reality “has been the object of a real cover-up” and she lends an articulate and authoritative voice to this concern. As the 1980s see the women’s movement under an increasingly organized attack from the new right, it is essential that we revitalize and renew our commitment to feminism that The Women’s Movement: Then and Now views not as a single reality but as a divergent movement embracing different aims, different ideologies and different approaches.