Full Description
This book of personal essays by over forty women and men who founded women's studies in Canada and Québec explores feminist activism on campus in the pivotal decade of 1966-76. The essays document the emergence of women's studies as a new way of understanding women, men, and society, and they challenge some current preconceptions about ""second wave"" feminist academics.
The contributors explain how the intellectual and political revolution begun by small groups of academics - often young, untenured women - at universities across Canada contributed to social progress and profoundly affected the way we think, speak, behave, understand equality, and conceptualize the academy and an academic career. A contextualizing essay documents the social, economic, political, and educational climate of the time, and a concluding chapter highlights the essays' recurring themes and assesses the intellectual and social transformation that their authors helped set in motion.
The essays document the appalling sexism and racism some women encounter in seeking admission to doctoral studies, in hiring, in pay, and in establishing the legitimacy of feminist perspectives in the academy. They reveal sources of resistance, too, not only from colleagues and administrators but from family members and from within the self. In so doing they provide inspiring examples of sisterly support and lifelong friendship.
Contents
Minds of Our Own: Inventing Feminist Scholarship and Women's Studies in Canada and Québec, 1966-76, edited by Wendy Robbins, Meg Luxton, Margrit Eichler, and Francine Descarries
PREFACE
CHANGING TIMES
Women's Organizations (before 1960)
Women's Changing Social Position
The Women's Movement of the 1960s and 1970s
Women in Post-Secondary Education
Feminist Scholarship and Women's Studies
ESSAYS
Creating a Tradition of Canadian Women Writers and Feminist Literary Criticism Clara Thomas
Mother Was Not a Person, So I Became a Feminist Marguerite Andersen
Fanning Fires: Women's Studies in a School of Social Work Helen Levine with Faith Schneider
Feminism: A Critical Theory of Knowledge Marie-Andrée Bertrand
Women's Studies: A Personal Story Dorothy E. Smith
Contributing to the Establishment of Women's Studies and Gender Relations Anita Caron
Feminism and a Scholarly Friendship Jill Ker Conway and Natalie Zemon Davis
Midwife to the Birth of Women's Studies at McGill Margaret Gillett
How the Simone de Beauvoir Institute of Concordia University Grew from Unlikely Beginnings Maïr Verthuy
Moments in the Making of a Feminist Historian Alison Prentice
Doing Feminist Studies without Knowing It Micheline Dumont
A Matrix of Creativity Frieda Forman
Transforming the Academy and the World Deborah Gorham
Reminiscences of a Male Supporter of the Movement towards Women's Liberation Leslie Marshall
You Just Had To Be There Greta Hofmann Nemiroff
The Second Wave: A Personal Voyage Sandra Pyke
A Lifetime of Struggling to Belong Vanaja Dhruvarajan
Once Upon a Time There Was the Feminist Movement Nadia Fahmy-Eid
Women's Studies at the University of Alberta Rosalind Sydie, Patricia Prestwich, Dallas Cullen
Women's Studies and the Trajectory of Women in Academe Annette Kolodny
Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University, 1966-76: A Dialogue Andrea Lebowitz, Honoree Newcombe, Meredith M. Kimball
Nascent, Incipient, Embryonic, and Ceremonial Women's Studies Linda Christiansen-Ruffman
To Challenge the World Margrit Eichler
From Male and Female Roles to Gender Relations: A Scientific and Political Trajectory Danielle Juteau
Second Wave Breaks on the Shore of U of T Lorna Marsden
Surviving Political Science ... and Loving It Jill Vickers
Blood on the Chapel Floor: Adventures in Women's Studies Kay Armatage
Genesis of a Journal Donna Smyth
The Saga Marylee Stephenson
Coming of Age with Women's Studies Meredith M. Kimball
Doing Women's Studies Pat Armstrong
Pioneer in Feminist Political Economy: Overcoming the Disjuncture Joan McFarland
Women's Studies at Guelph Terry Crowley
Women's Studies: Oppression and Liberation in the University Meg Luxton
Reflections on Teaching and Writing Feminist Philosophy in the 1970s Susan Sherwin
From Marginalized to ""Establishment"": Doing Feminist Sociology Maureen Baker
""To Ring True and Stand for Something"" Wendy Robbins
Socialist Feminist and Activist Educator Linda Briskin
My Path to Feminist Philosophy, 1970-76 Christine Overall
Women's Sight: Looking Backwards into Women's Studies in Toronto Ceta Ramkhalawansingh
PERSONAL AND INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION: SOME REFLECTIONS
The Patriarchal Context
Countervailing Social Movements
Intersections of Gender, Race, Class, Sexual Orientation
Inventing a New Scholarship and New Structures
Disciplinarity and/or Interdisciplinarity
Student-Teacher Relations
Personal Impacts
Interesting Times
APPENDIXES
Appendix A. Alphabetical List of Authors
Appendix B. List of Authors by Discipline
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX.
