Equality, Autonomy, and Dignity: Canadian Feminism over 100 Years

In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne talks to Joan Sangster about her book Demanding Equality: One Hundred Years of Canadian Feminism published by the University of British Columbia Press in 2021. In Demanding Equality, Joan Sangster weaves together various moments of women’s activism over a 100 year period to explore what feminism is in Canada. Sangster delves into the riches of Canadian feminism, beginning with nineteenth-century tracts and continuing beyond the recent intersectional turn. Challenging the popular “wave” theory of feminist history, she argues for the movement’s surprising continuity amid decades of social transformation. This comprehensive study revitalizes a wider public conversation about the diverse movement of Canadian feminism past, present, and future. Joan Sangster is Vanier Professor Emeritus at Trent University, and past president of the Canadian Historical Association. She has written countless articles about working women in the labour movement, the history of the left, feminist theory and historiography, the criminalization of women and girls, and Indigenous women and the law. She's the author of several influential books, including One Hundred Years of Struggle: The History of Women and the Vote in Canada, Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada and The Iconic North: Cultural Constructions of Aboriginal Life in Postwar Canada. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she's held a Killam Fellowship as well as visiting professorships at Duke, Princeton, and McGill Universities. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.