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History Post-confederation (1867-)

Dreams of Equality

Women on the Canadian Left, 1920-1950

by (author) Joan Sangster

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
Dec 1989
Category
Post-Confederation (1867-), Women in Politics, Women's Studies, Social History, Feminism & Feminist Theory
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780771079467
    Publish Date
    Apr 1989
    List Price
    $31.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442659636
    Publish Date
    Dec 1989
    List Price
    $30.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442656055
    Publish Date
    Dec 1989
    List Price
    $33.95

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Description

Canadian women on the political left in the first half of the twentieth century fought with varying degrees of commitment for women's rights. Women's dreams of equality were in part a vision of economic and class equality, though they also represented profound desires for equality with men - both within their own parties and in the larger society. In both the Communist Party of Canada and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a male-dominated leadership seldom embraced women's causes wholeheartedly or as a doctrinal priority. So-called women's issues, whether birth control, consumer issues, or equal pay, usually took second place to an emphasis on the general needs of workers or farmers. Nonetheless, many women continued to promote their feminist causes through the socialist movement, in the hope that, eventually, the socialist New Jerusalem would see their dreams of equality fulfilled.

In Dreams of Equality, Joan Sangster chronicles in fascinating detail the first tentative stages of a politically aware women's movement in Canada, from the time of women's suffrage to the 1950's when the CPC went into decline and the CCF began to experience the changes that would evolve into the New Democratic Party a decade later.

About the author

Joan Sangster is a professor of women's studies and history at Trent University, where she also teaches at the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Native Studies. Her most recent books are Girl Trouble: Female 'Delinquency' in English Canada and Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada.

Joan Sangster's profile page