Constance Backhouse is a professor of law, distinguished university professor, and university research chair at the University of Ottawa. She obtained her B.A. from the University of Manitoba (1972), her LL.B. from Osgoode Hall (1975), and her LL.M. from Harvard Law School (1979). She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1978. She teaches feminist law, criminal law, human rights, and labour law. She is the author of many award-winning legal history books, including Petticoats & Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada (1991), Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canadian Law, 1900–1950 (1999) and The Heiress vs. the Establishment: Mrs. Campbell's Campaign for Legal Justice (2004). She received the Law Society Medal in 1998 and an Honorary Doctorate from the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2002. She has served as an elected bencher of the Law Society from 2002. She became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004.

Constance Backhouse's profile page

• Joint winner, Willard Hurst Prize in American Legal History

"Constance Backhouse has been a courageous trailblazer for feminist legal history in Canada. Petticoats & Prejudice speaks to her immense talents as an extraordinarily perceptive historian, storyteller, and legal analyst. Covering an impressive range of legal issues, including reproduction, violence, familial relations and labour, she analyzes the meanings and impact of the 19th century patriarchal legal system on women, as well as women's efforts to challenge that system. She brings law to life in a compelling, compassionate, and always incisive manner."— “Joan Sangster, Trent University