Toronto Women: Changing Faces, 1900-2000

Sara Stratton holds a PhD in American history from York University.

This entertaining collection of photographs demonstrates that while
Toronto has undergone many changes in the last century, certain themes
in women’s lives persist despite the changes that we hoped would
accompany moments of feminist consciousness. That so many
“cheesecake” pictures appear throughout the book is as instructive
as it is depressing.

The editors have been diligent in trying to reflect the cultural and
ethnic diversity of Toronto, but there are significant gaps: There is no
lesbian content in a book about a city with Canada’s largest gay and
lesbian population. Aside from a sly photograph of Agnes MacPhail
whispering in Ontario premier Mitch Hepburn’s ear, and a couple of
pictures of employment demonstrations in the 1930s and 1940s, there is
little reflection of women’s struggles for equality. Where is the
suffragist movement? Where is International Women’s Day?

It would also be helpful if the text were more critical. Which of the
pictures were posed, and why? In many cases, there is agonizingly little
information, and although this is hardly the authors’ fault, it is
frustrating. Without any information, we cannot know how representative
these pictures are, and they run the risk of becoming mere curiosities.

Toronto Women will appeal to those interested in Toronto’s history,
or in the changes and continuities in women’s images.