University of Alberta Branching Out, 1973-1980: Canadian Second-Wave Feminism, Periodical Publishing and Cultural Politics by Tessa Elizabeth Jordan A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Department of English and Film Studies ©Tessa Elizabeth Jordan Spring 2012 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. For the women of Branching Out Abstract “Branching Out, 1973-1980: Canadian Second-Wave Feminism, Periodical Publishing and Cultural Politics” considers the intersection of culture and politics in the first national feminist magazine published in Canada, Branching Out: Canadian Magazine for Women. Published in Edmonton from 1973 to 1980, Branching Out was a professional quality magazine produced by volunteers with a mandate to publish literature, art and feminist analysis by Canadian women. This dissertation locates Branching Out within the field of Canadian feminism and establishes the political role of alternative cultural institutions such as Branching Out. The first scholarly study of Branching Out, this project moves from a close focus on the magazine’s production to an analysis of the political role of cultural institutions to a broader discussion of Branching Out’s location within the landscape of Canadian second-wave feminism. Chapter one focuses on Branching Out’s staff and organizational structure. Relying on data collected during interviews with Branching Out staff members, this chapter outlines the contributions of Susan McMaster and Sharon Batt, the magazine’s founding and long-time editors respectively, and analyzes the challenges that Branching Out faced as a feminist magazine operating in a male-dominated, commercially driven publishing industry. Chapter two demonstrates how Branching Out challenged the distinction between art and politics and exemplified the political nature of cultural production. Chapter three discusses various strains of Canadian feminism—radical, reform, socialist, cultural—and defines Branching Out as an example of cultural feminism, recuperating this term from its derogatory use by radical feminists in order to demonstrate how Branching Out disrupts rigid distinctions between art and politics. This project has four central aims: one, to recuperate the history of a major, western Canadian, second-wave feminist magazine; two, to acknowledge the contributions of the women who worked on this magazine; three, to reinforce understandings of the political nature of cultural production; and four, to build on existing histories of Canadian second-wave feminism. My purpose throughout this study is to understand the contributions that Branching Out’s unique combination of feminist analysis and cultural production made to Canadian second-wave feminism. Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my colleagues, family and friends. I will be forever grateful for their guidance and encouragement. To my supervisor and mentor, Jo-Ann Wallace, for introducing me to Branching Out, believing in the value of my work when I wanted to give up, teaching me how to be a scholar, and being extraordinarily patient with me when I was not ready to learn. Thank you, thank you, thank you. To my co-supervisor, Stephen Slemon, for your enthusiasm, encouragement, and thoughtful commentary on my work, and, perhaps most importantly, for subscribing to Branching Out. Your passion for the magazine is contagious and, over the years, this passion always reminded me why I chose to study Branching Out. To the members of my examining committee, Daphne Read, Ted Bishop, and Lise Gotell, for your thoughtful questions and constructive feedback. To Faye Hammill, for your thorough and generous comments as external examiner. It has been a privilege to have such a knowledgeable and insightful group of scholars read and engage with my work. To Lucie Desjardin (archivist), Véronique Paris (archival technician), and Linda Arsenault (clerk) at the Canadian Women’s Movement Archives at the University of Ottawa Archives and Special Collections, for taking hours out of your busy schedules to prepare uncatalogued materials for consultation each time I visited the archives. To the reviewers and editorial team at English Studies in Canada for your constructive feedback on my article “Branching Out: Second-Wave Feminist Periodicals and the Archive of Canadian Women’s Writing,” published in the journal’s June-September 2010 issue. Excerpts from this article appear throughout this dissertation. To my family, for being proud of me. To my brother, Spencer Holowachuk, for your constant support and encouragement and, most of all, for always making me laugh. To my father, Lorne Holowachuk, for instilling in me the value of determination and for teaching by example that playing hard is just as important as working hard. To my mother, Lynn Davies, for always having your nose in a book and encouraging me to do the same and for catching me when I stumble. To my stepfather, Eric Woodhouse, for supporting me and celebrating with me from the moment you joined our family. And to Harvey Quamen, for everything. To the extraordinary women in my life, who were there for the highs and the lows that were part of this journey: Jennifer Boyd, Mellissa Carroll, Katerina Weller, Leigh Dyrda, Dana Wight, Melissa Stephens, and Mary Chan. Thank you for laughing with me and crying with me, talking for hours with me, drinking with me, and putting it all into perspective for me. You have all branched out in ways that inspire me everyday. I am blessed to have you in my life. To the women whom I interviewed for this study, your candour and generosity were a constant source of inspiration. Your words brought Branching Out to life. Thank you for trusting me with your stories. Table of Contents Preface 1 Introduction “Thinking about and Making Culture” 13 Chapter One Keeping the “Bobbing Paper Boat” Afloat 63 Chapter Two “Correcting an Imbalance”: The Intersection of Art and Politics in Branching Out 117 Chapter Three “Beyond the First Growth of Radical Feminism”: Defining Canadian Second-Wave Feminism, Locating Branching Out 198 Conclusion Memory Narratives and Canadian Second-Wave Feminism 252 Figures 260 Works Cited 279 Appendix 1: Core Interview Question 292 Appendix 2: Participant Biographies 293 List of Figures Figure 1: Preview Issue, December 1973 Figure 2: International Women’s Year, November/December 1975 Figure 3: Election Primer, 1979 Figure 4: February/March 1976 Figure 5: July/August 1975 Figure 6: Environment Issue, 1978 Figure 7: Women in Sport, 1978 Figure 8: Fifth Anniversary Issue, 1979 Figure 9: Special Fiction Issue, 1979 Figure 10: March/April 1975 Figure 11: Women and Politics, December 1977 Figure 12: March/April 1974 Figure 13: January/February 1975 Figure 14: Women and Education, 1978 Figure 15: Women and Art, 1978 Figure 16: Fashion and Feminism, March/April 1977 Figure 17: Final Issue Front Cover, July 1980 Figure 18: Final Issue Back Cover, July 1980 Figure 19: “The Last Word on Branching Out,” July 1980 1 Preface I was first introduced to Branching Out: Canadian Magazine for Women in 2007 during Jo-Ann Wallace’s graduate seminar on the literature of second-wave feminism.1 At the time, I was a first-year PhD student and my proposed dissertation research was on three California second-wave feminist presses. As the seminar progressed and we compared early second-wave feminist texts from the American, British and Canadian women’s movements, I began to question why I had chosen to study American feminist publishing. During this seminar, I realized how little information is available on Canadian second-wave feminism and began to wonder if I should apply my interest in feminist publishing to a more local object of study. The week that we discussed Ms. magazine, Dr. Wallace also brought in copies of Branching Out—a national feminist magazine published in Edmonton from 1973 to 1980—to provide a Canadian counterpoint to Ms. magazine. Once I learned that there was such a substantial feminist publishing venture in Edmonton in the 1970s and that it had fallen out of the historical record, I was hooked. I took my interest in feminist publishing and applied it to a Canadian feminist publication that was produced in the city where I was beginning my research career. At first I was drawn to the diversity of the material between Branching Out’s covers. Branching Out published fiction and poetry alongside political and human interest features, visual art, legal advice, Canadian women’s history, and analyses of the Canadian women’s movement. But it was not only this generic variety that drew me to the magazine, I was also attracted to the ways in which Branching Out 1 This seminar was offered by the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta in the Winter 2007 semester as English 567: Literary History, The Literature of Second-Wave Feminism. 2 challenged received wisdom about second-wave feminism. One of the central themes that we explored during Dr. Wallace’s graduate seminar was how the primary texts of early second-wave feminism challenge the common perception that second- wave feminists were inattentive to difference. My initial interest in Branching Out was shaped by this challenge.