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Canadian First Wave Feminism Revisited

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Canadian First Wave Feminism Revisited Mrs. Canada Goes Global: Canadian First Wave Feminism Revisited Nancy Forestell, St. Francis Xavier University, along with The recently celebrated thirty-fifth anniversary Maureen Moynagh, is engaged in a two-volume of the Canadian Committee on Women's History (CCWH) documents project on international collaborations and at the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, June cross-currents in first wave feminism. 2005 in London, Ontario, highlighted the tremendous growth and increasing sophistication of feminist Abstract historical scholarship in this country over the past three An intensive re-examination of first wave feminism in decades. Yet in the midst of these celebrations, Canada is long overdue, especially in light of new and discussion among women's and gender historians made important questions which have been raised in the it clear that the field remains seriously underdeveloped international literature. A more systematic exploration of in the history of first wave and second wave feminism. feminism and the making of Canada is essential most For an academic field which emerged out of and has notably as it relates to citizenship, imperialism and continued to draw inspiration from women's feminist internationalism. activism in Canada, as Linda Kealey eloquently pointed Résumé out in one of the CCWH anniversary sessions, there is Une ré-étude de la première vague du féminisme au a certain irony that questions related to women, social Canada est échue depuis bien longtemps, surtout vu les justice and historical change have not received enough nouvelles et importantes questions qui ont été soulevées scrutiny. An intensive re-examination of first-wave dans la littérature internationale. Une exploration plus feminism is long overdue, especially in light of new and systématique du féminisme et de la création du Canada important questions which have been raised in the est essentielle plus notamment en ce qui a trait à la international literature. If we are to better understand citoyenneté, l'impérialisme et l'internationalisme. feminism and the making of Canada a more systematic exploration of citizenship, imperialism and internationalism is essential. First wave feminism received much scholarly attention in this country as the field of women's history burgeoned in the l970s and l980s (Bacchi l983; Gorham 1975 & l976; Kealey 1979; Strong-Boag 1977 & 1987). Little research on has been done on women's political beliefs and activism in the last fifteen years.1 Like feminist social historians elsewhere, scholars here turned away from political history to explore other dimensions of women's lives and of gender. As Melanie Nolan and Caroline Daley have pointed out, first wave feminism came to be "dismissed and discredited in the heady Forestell Atlantis 30.1, 2005 7 optimism of the second wave." Suffrage history was seen While the contributions of Protestant women by many as elitist and old-fashioned (Nolan and Daley to various social reform and political causes have been 1994, 3). Yet in the early l990s a growing number of well documented and fully justified (Christie 2000; feminist scholars internationally began to return to Valverde 1992), Catholic women, especially those outside political history and to "rediscover," "rethink," of francophone Quebec, are overlooked. Marta "re-root," or "re-read" earlier interpretations of first Danylewicz has studied the relationship between nuns wave feminism (Baker 2002; Grimshaw 1994; Hewitt and lay women in the rise of feminism in Montreal 2001; Kwon 1999). The work of Australian women's (Danylewicz 1987), but other collaborations among historians (Bulbeck 1994; Curthoys 1994; Grimshaw Catholic women elsewhere remain unknown. Margot 2001; Lake 1994 & 2001; Paisley 1998 & 2000) has Duley's study of the suffrage movement in Newfoundland focused not just on developments within specific notes the presence of Catholic women but does not countries, but has studied feminist thought and activism analyse how these women's religion shaped their in the broader and often overlapping contexts of involvement and the politics of the suffrage movement imperial and international politics (D'Itri 1999; Fletcher, (Duley 1993a & 1993b). Catholic women played a less Mayhall and Levine 2000; Sinha, Guy and Woolacott prominent role in various feminist initiatives at the turn 1999; Smitely 2002; Tyrell 1991). They combine of the twentieth century, but precisely how and why political, social and cultural history (Burton 2000; Glenn needs to be further analyzed and documentation of 2000; Tickner 1988). These international trends have what contributions they did make is required. A more not been adopted in the Canadian feminist in-depth exploration of Halifax, Saint John and St. John's historiography to any extent. and of northeastern Nova Scotia and eastern Ontario, The limitations of the existing Canadian which have sizeable Irish and Scottish Catholic literature are readily apparent. Since the mid-1980s, populations, is also needed. virtually nothing has been produced about the Much of the research focusses on central relationship between anglophone and francophone Canada, especially Ontario and westward. E.R. Forbes' feminists or any attempted comparisons drawn between l989 work on Edith Archibald remains one of the very how such women conceived of political equality and few works, for example, on the women's movement in citizenship (Danylewicz 1987; Fournier l982). Neither has Nova Scotia (Forbes 1989). This regional imbalance the extent to which earlier generations of feminists restricts what can be said about so-called national attempted to overcome the linguistic divide and how perceptions and politics, and limits understanding of they might have influenced one another been studied. potentially useful regional variations. Linda Kealey, Janice Newton and Joan Sangster Finally, the actual struggle for suffrage has have made important contributions to our understanding elicited rather cursory study. Our last comprehensive of socialist feminism (Kealey 1998; Newton 1995; work on the suffrage movement was Catherine Sangster 1989) while others have examined Cleverdon's The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada working-class women "who organized as auxiliary (Cleverdon 1950). Carol Lee Bacchi's Liberation Deferred, members, consumers and supporters of radical causes" the last book-length treatment of Canadian suffrage, (Sangster 2000, 57). But we know little about how such published in 1983, concentrates only on those Bacchi women engaged with or retreated from other first wave called "overt" suffragists, namely those who were feminist issues such as temperance and suffrage. members of official suffrage organizations (Bacchi 1983). 8 Atlantis 30.1, 2005 Forestell Veronica Strong-Boag's piece on the "citizenship 1994; Rhodes 1998). More is required. debates," which took place over the 1885 Franchise Act, The Canadian literature remains sheds new light on federal politicians' views of female underdeveloped. There is deficient information about an suffrage, yet we have only the broad outlines of array of individuals, organizations and forms of opposition to and support for the franchise and interaction or non-interaction, and of how gender, race, feminism (Strong-Boag 2002). ethnicity, class, religion, region and nation intersected Over the past decade, scholars have with one another in shaping ideas, actions, and considered the charge, first made by Carol Lee Bacchi relationships. Canadians have not drawn inspiration and and later elaborated upon by Mariana Valverde, that insights from the international literature. first wave Canadian feminists were racist (Bacchi 1983; Valverde 1992 & 2000). "[E]ntrenched polarities" The Politics of Colonization, the Politics of Empire developed among historians with some scholars New imperial studies and post-colonial theory uniformly condemning the beliefs and actions of first have had a profound impact on the international wave feminism while others sought to defend them. historical literature on first wave feminism, with books Janice Fiamengo avoids both "the reductive conclusion such as Burdens of History by Antoinette Burton being that all first wave feminist writing promoted a particularly influential (Burton 1994). Ruth Roach monolithic racism," and arguments that early feminists Pierson rewrites Canadian history within a broader not be judged so harshly for being "a product of their framework by posing questions about the relationship age" (Fiamengo 2002a, 154). In examining the race between colonialism and imperialism, including the thinking of Nellie McClung and others, she has discerned complex gendered and racial relationships between ambiguity, contradiction, and variation: "because it "colonizer and colonized" (Pierson 1998). Cecilia Morgan demonstrates that white supremacy, undeniably the has written about Canadian travelers to the imperial dominant ideology...was nonetheless not absolute in centre of London, and Adele Perry on the white Canadian society before World War II" (Fiamengo settlement of British Columbia (Morgan 2001 & 2003; 2002a, 155 & 2002b). Literary critics have been Perry 2001 & 2004). The non-Canadian literature has contributing much to our understanding of racialization demonstrated the essential importance of revising the and racism within the first wave (Henderson 2003; approach to the history of feminism. As Burton has Mukherjee 1995), but richly detailed studies by noted, "the category of feminism itself emerged from historians that are more
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