University of British Columbia Press
Feminism’s Fight
Challenging Politics and Policies in Canada since 1970
9780774868044
9780774868037
Distributed for University of British Columbia Press
Feminism’s Fight
Challenging Politics and Policies in Canada since 1970
A history of the struggle for social and economic gender equality in Canada.
Feminism’s Fight explores and assesses feminist strategies to advance gender justice through Canadian federal policy over the past fifty years, from the 1970 Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women to the present. The authors evaluate changing government orientations through the 1970s to the 2000s, revealing the negative impact on most women’s lives and the challenges for feminists. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated misogyny and related systemic inequalities. Yet it has also revived feminist mobilization and animated calls for a new and comprehensive equality agenda for Canada.
Feminism’s Fight tells the crucial story of a transformation in how feminism has been treated by governments and asks how new ways of organizing and new alliances can advance a feminist agenda of social and economic equality.
Feminism’s Fight explores and assesses feminist strategies to advance gender justice through Canadian federal policy over the past fifty years, from the 1970 Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women to the present. The authors evaluate changing government orientations through the 1970s to the 2000s, revealing the negative impact on most women’s lives and the challenges for feminists. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated misogyny and related systemic inequalities. Yet it has also revived feminist mobilization and animated calls for a new and comprehensive equality agenda for Canada.
Feminism’s Fight tells the crucial story of a transformation in how feminism has been treated by governments and asks how new ways of organizing and new alliances can advance a feminist agenda of social and economic equality.
392 pages | 1 halftone | 6 x 9 | © 2023
Political Science: Public Policy
Sociology: Social Change, Social Movements, Political Sociology
Reviews
Table of Contents
Part 1: Challenging Dominant Paradigms
1 From the Status of Women to Gender Justice for Women / Barbara Cameron and Meg Luxton
2 Sex Discrimination in the Indian Act: A Tool of Forced Assimilation / Shelagh Day and Pamela Palmater
Part 2: Reclaiming the Economy
3 Feminism Meets Macroeconomic Policy / Barbara Cameron
4 Never Done: The Challenge of Unpaid Work in the Home / Meg Luxton
5 Fifty Years for Farm Women: Gender and Shifting Agricultural Policy Paradigms in Canada / Amber J. Fletcher
Part 3: Reimagining Policy
6 Policy Discourses on Sexual Violence: From the Royal Commission to the (Post-)Neoliberal State / Lise Gotell
7 Responsibility and Reproduction after the Royal Commission / Alana Cattapan
8 The Royal Commission and Immigration and Citizenship: A Missed Opportunity? / Christina Gabriel
9 Securing Income, Sustaining Livelihoods: Th e Royal Commission, Social Reproduction, and Income Security / Ann Porter
Part 4: Reframing Representation
10 Strategic, Cynical, and Sinister Representation: Reconceptualizing and Recasting Women’s Representation / Alexandra Dobrowolsky
11 The Royal Commission and Unions: Leadership, Equality, Women’s Organizing, and Collective Agency / Linda Briskin
Part 5: Reforming Institutions
12 Equality Instituted? Gender Equity, Women’s Rights, and Human Rights Commissions / Nicole S. Bernhardt
13 Federalism for the Twenty-First Century: Feminism and Multilevel Governance in Canada / Tammy Findlay
Index
1 From the Status of Women to Gender Justice for Women / Barbara Cameron and Meg Luxton
2 Sex Discrimination in the Indian Act: A Tool of Forced Assimilation / Shelagh Day and Pamela Palmater
Part 2: Reclaiming the Economy
3 Feminism Meets Macroeconomic Policy / Barbara Cameron
4 Never Done: The Challenge of Unpaid Work in the Home / Meg Luxton
5 Fifty Years for Farm Women: Gender and Shifting Agricultural Policy Paradigms in Canada / Amber J. Fletcher
Part 3: Reimagining Policy
6 Policy Discourses on Sexual Violence: From the Royal Commission to the (Post-)Neoliberal State / Lise Gotell
7 Responsibility and Reproduction after the Royal Commission / Alana Cattapan
8 The Royal Commission and Immigration and Citizenship: A Missed Opportunity? / Christina Gabriel
9 Securing Income, Sustaining Livelihoods: Th e Royal Commission, Social Reproduction, and Income Security / Ann Porter
Part 4: Reframing Representation
10 Strategic, Cynical, and Sinister Representation: Reconceptualizing and Recasting Women’s Representation / Alexandra Dobrowolsky
11 The Royal Commission and Unions: Leadership, Equality, Women’s Organizing, and Collective Agency / Linda Briskin
Part 5: Reforming Institutions
12 Equality Instituted? Gender Equity, Women’s Rights, and Human Rights Commissions / Nicole S. Bernhardt
13 Federalism for the Twenty-First Century: Feminism and Multilevel Governance in Canada / Tammy Findlay
Index