Framing Our Past : Constructing Canadian Women's History in the Twentieth Century

Lavishly illustrated and written for a broad audience, Framing Our Past offers insights into the lives of individual Canadian women, the obscure as well as the better-known, who pioneered new activities or expanded the boundaries of women's traditional roles. On topics ranging from everyday life to education, politics, health, and economics, we see how women in Canada have contributed to and been influenced by the transformation of societies around the world. Contents Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Suggestions on How to Use This Book PART ONE: LIVING WOMEN'S LIVES 1 Introduction Veronica Strong-Boag Sidebar: Fanny Bobbie Rosenfeld Sidebar: Lucy Maud Montgomery 2 "Club": Laundering Clothing in Newfoundland Kathleen Wilker 3 Vignette: Stirring the Pot* 4 Winnipeg Women Getting Together: Study Groups and Reading Clubs, 1900–1940 5 Vignette: Life in the Town of Nelson, British Columbia 6 "Doing All the Rest": Church Women of the Ladies' Aid Society 7 Preserving Habits: Memory within Communities of English Canadian Women Religious 8 Mildred Armstrong and Missionary Culture 9 Vignette: Women's Spiritual Lives 10 E. Pauline Johnson: Mohawk-English Writer and Performer Veronica Strong-Boag Sidebar: Emma Albani 11 Vignette: Two Perspectives on Urban Living Mairuth Sarsfield Mairuth Hodge Sarsfield Sidebar: Margaret Marshall Saunders Gabrielle Roy 12 Ada Gladys Killins: Sacrificing for Art's Sake 13 Vignette: The Road Less Taken – The Single Woman as Artist The Unmarried Woman Artist: Emily Carr Isabel and Helen Stadelbauer: Art Teachers in Calgary 14 A Sense of Place in Alberta: The Art and Life of Annora Brown 15 Vignette: Yukon Women Pioneers Edith Josie: "These Are the News" Martha Louise Black 16 Alice Peck, May Phillips, and the Canadian Handicrafts Guild 17 Vignette: Life in a Native Community 18 Helen Kalvak: Pioneering Inuit Print-maker 19 Virginia J. Watt: Champion of Inuit Arts and Crafts 20 A Century of Artistic Experience and Innovation PART TWO: FAMILY AND THE HOME 21 Introduction 22 Zoé Laurier, Prime Minister's Wife: Family Ideals at the Turn of the Century 23 "A Hardier Stock of Womankind": Alice Barrett Parke in British Columbia 24 Life on the Frontier: Remembering the Coal Mining Camp at Cadomin, 1929-1934 25 Women and Domestic Technology: Household Drudgery, "Democratized Consumption," and Patriarchy 26 Defining the Lives of Rural Women: Laura Rose on "The Womanly Sphere of Woman" 27 "Such Outrageous Discrimination": Farm Women and Their Family Grievances in Early Twentieth-Century Ontario 28 Between the Rock and a Hard Place: Single Mothers in St John's, Newfoundland, during the Second World War 29 Prudence Heward: Painting at Home 30 Mothering the Dionne Quintuplets: Women's Stories 31 Saving Mothers and Babies: Motherhood, Medicine, and the Modern State, 1900-1945 PART THREE: TEACHING AND LEARNING 32 Introduction 33 Shaping Canada's Women: Canadian Girls in Training versus Girl Guides 34 The Experience of Women Students at Four Universities, 1895-1930 Sidebar: Grace Annie Lockhart 35 Margaret Addison: Dean of Residence and Dean of Women at Victoria University, 1903-1931 36 The "Feminization" of High Schools: The Problem of Women Secondary School Teachers in Ontario 37 Writing for Whom? Isabel Murphy Skelton and Canadian History in the Early Twentieth Century 38 The Rideau Street Convent School: French-Language Private Schooling in Ontario 39 "The School on Fardy's Cross": Shamrock School Remembered Pat Trites 40 Vignette: Women, Team Sport, and Physical Education Women and Physical Education Women and Team Sport Montreal Sportswomen and the Penguin Ski Club 41 From Elegance and Expression to Sweat and Strength: Physical Education at the Margaret Eaton School PART FOUR: WOMEN'S ACTIVISM AND THE STATE 42 Introduction Sidebar: Adelaide Hunter Hoodless Sidebar: Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire 43 History and Human Agency: The Case of Agnes Macphail, Canada's First Woman Member of Parliament 44 The Persons Case, 1929: A Legal Definition of Women as Persons 45 Women, the Settlement Movement, and State Formation in the Early Twentieth Century 46 The Historical Record and Adolescent Girls in Montreal's Red-Light District 47 Charlotte Whitton: Pioneering Social Worker and Public Policy Activist 48 Consuming Issues: Women on the Left, Political Protest, and the Organization of Homemakers, 1920-1960 49 Making Ourselves Heard: "Voice of Women" and the Peace Movement in the Early Sixties 50 The Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, 1967-1970:Liberal Feminism and Its Radical Implications Sidebar: Lady Ishbel Aberdeen 51 Florence Bird 52 Women, Peace Activism, and the Environment: Rosalie Bertell and the Development of a Feminist Agenda, 1970S-1990S 53 State Control of Women's Immigration: The Passage to Canada of South Asian Women 54 Making Space: Women Building Culture 55 Feminist Theatre in Toronto: A Look at the Nightwood Theatre PART FIVE: HEALTH CARE AND SCIENCE 56 Introduction 57 The Ladies Committee of the Home for Incurable Children 58 Margaret Scott: "The Angel of Poverty Row" 59 "Hardly Feminine Work!" Violet Wilson and the Canadian Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurses of the First World War Sidebar: Major Margaret C. Macdonald 60 The Emergence of Physiotherapy as a New Profession for Canadian Women,1914–1918 61 Ethel Currant: Portrait of a Grenfell Nurse 62 Vera Peters: Medical Innovator 63 Norah Toole: Scientist and Social Activist 64 Alice V. Payne, Mining Geologist: A Lifetime of "Small and Difficult Things" 65 Vignette: A Case Study of an Oral History Project Shirley Peruniak Naturalist, Historian, Quetico Provincial Part Interpreter PART SIX: EARNING THEIR BREAD 66 Introduction Sidebar: Depression Years Sidebar: Pay Equity 67 Vignette: An Oral History Case Study A Barnardo Girl Becomes a Servant at Glanmore A Barnardo Girl Becomes a Servant at Glanmore 68 Bringing "Domestics" to Canada: A Study of Immigration Propaganda 69 Women in the Newfoundland Fishery 70 Vignette: Madeleine Constant, Leader in the Pasta Industry 71 Creative Ability and Business Sense: The Millinery Trade in Ontario 72 Our Mothers' Patterns: Sewing and Dressmaking in the Japanese-Canadian Community 73 Federica and Angelina: Postwar Italian-Canadian Couturiers in Toronto 74 Fabrications: Clothing, Generations, and Stitching Together the History We Live 75 The Telephone Operator: From "Information Central" to Endangered Species 76 Ann Meekitjuk Hanson: Inuit Broadcaster, Interpreter, and Community Worker 77 Cultural Nationalism and Maternal Feminism: Madge Macbeth as Writer, Broadcaster, and Literary Figure 78 "The Day of the Strong-Minded Frump Has Passed": Women Journalists and News of Feminism Sidebar: Jean McKishnie Blewett 79 Women in Banking: A Case Study of Scotiabank 80 Vignette: The Keroacks, a Family of Business Women 81 "The Queen of the Hurricanes": Elsie Gregory MacGill, Aeronautical Engineer and Women's Advocate 82 The Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service during the Second World War: An Exploration of Their Archival Legacy 83 Vignette: "Not Just 'Rosie the Riveter ...'" 84 Women's Wartime Work and Identities: Women Workers at Canadian Car and Foundry Co. Limited,Fort William, Ontario, 1938-1945 85 Foreign-Aid Worker and Humanitarian Lotta Hitschmanova and the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada Appendix One: Archival Sources Identified by Essay/Vignette Appendix Two: Cross-Referenced Essay Index Notes Selected Readings Contributors With introductory essays by historians, Framing Our Past emphasizes the lived experiences of women: their participation in many areas of social life, such as social rituals with other women; organized sporting clubs; philanthropic, spiritual and aesthetic activities; study and reading groups. The authors then focus on women's roles as nurturers and keepers of the hearth B their experiences with family management, child care, and health concerns. They consider women's varied contributions within formal and informal educational systems as well as their instrumental political role in consumer activism, social work, peace movements, and royal commissions. Canadian women's shaping of health care and science through nursing, physiotherapy and research are discussed, as is women's work, from domestic labour to dressmaking to broadcasting to banking. Using diary accounts, oral history, letters, organizational records, paintings, quilts, dressmaking patterns, milliners' records, posters, Framing our Past offers a unique opportunity to share what is rarely if ever seen, offering insights into the preservation and interpretation of historical sources. "Framing Our Past emphasizes the lived experiences of women: their participation in many areas of social life, such as social rituals with other women; organized sporting clubs; philanthropic, spiritual, and aesthetic activities; study and reading groups. The authors then focus on women's roles as nurturers and keepers of the hearth - their experiences with family management, child care, and health concerns. They consider women's varied contributions within formal and informal educational systems as well as their instrumental political role in consumer activism, social work, peace movements, and royal commissions. Canadian women's shaping of health care and science through nursing, physiotherapy and research are discussed, as are other forms of women's work, from domestic labour to broadcasting to banking."--Jacket