Feminism's fight : challenging politics and policies in Canada since 1970

A history of the struggle for social and economic gender equality in Canada. Feminism’s Fight explores and assesses feminist strategies to advance gender justice through Canadian federal policy over the past fifty years, from the 1970 Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women to the present. The authors evaluate changing government orientations through the 1970s to the 2000s, revealing the negative impact on most women’s lives and the challenges for feminists. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated misogyny and related systemic inequalities. Yet it has also revived feminist mobilization and animated calls for a new and comprehensive equality agenda for Canada. Feminism’s Fight tells the crucial story of a transformation in how feminism has been treated by governments and asks how new ways of organizing and new alliances can advance a feminist agenda of social and economic equality. Cover Contents Acknowledgments PART 1 Challenging Dominant Paradigms 1 From the Status of Women to Gender Justice for Women 2 Sex Discrimination in the Indian Act: A Tool of Forced Assimilation PART 2 Reclaiming the Economy 3 Feminism Meets Macroeconomic Policy 4 Never Done: The Challenge of Unpaid Work in the Home 5 Fifty Years for Farm Women: Gender and Shifting Agricultural Policy Paradigms in Canada PART 3 Reimagining Policy 6 Policy Discourses on Sexual Violence: From the Royal Commission to the (Post-)Neoliberal State 7 Responsibility and Reproduction after the Royal Commission 8 The Royal Commission and Immigration and Citizenship: A Missed Opportunity? 9 Securing Income, Sustaining Livelihoods: The Royal Commission, Social Reproduction, and Income Security PART 4 Reframing Representation 10 Strategic, Cynical, and Sinister Representation: Reconceptualizing and Recasting Women’s Representation 11 The Royal Commission and Unions: Leadership, Equality, Women’s Organizing, and Collective Agency PART 5 Reforming Institutions 12 Equality Instituted? Gender Equity, Women’s Rights, and Human Rights Commissions 13 Federalism for the Twenty-First Century: Feminism and Multilevel Governance in Canada Contributors Index "Feminism’s Fight explores and assesses feminist strategies to advance gender justice through Canadian federal policy from the 1970s to the present. It tells the crucial story of a transformation in how feminism has been treated by governments and asks how new ways of organizing and emerging alliances can advance a feminist agenda of social and economic equality. This timely collection examines the ideas that feminists have put forward in pursuit of the goal of equality and traces the shifting frameworks employed by governments in response. The authors evaluate changing government orientations through the 1970s to 2020, revealing the negative impact on women’s lives and the challenges posed for feminists. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the sexism, misogyny, and related systemic inequalities that remain widespread. Yet it has also revived feminist mobilization and animated calls for a new and comprehensive equality agenda for Canada. Feminism’s Fight asks two key questions: What are the lessons from feminist engagement with federal government policy over fifty years? And what kinds of transformative policy demands will achieve the feminist goal of social and economic equality?"-- Provided by publisher