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CAUT Bulletin Archives
1996-2016

April 2014

Feminist history in Canada

New essays on women, gender, work and nation

Catherine Carstairs & Nancy Janovicek, eds. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 2013; 302 pp; ISBN: 978-0-77482-619-8, cloth $95 CAD.

In the late 1970s, feminist historians urged us to “rethink” Canada by placing women’s perspectives and experiences at the centre of historical analysis. Forty years later, women’s and gender historians continue to take up the challenge, not only to interrogate the idea of nation but also to place their work in a global perspective. This volume opens with a discussion of the debates, themes and methodological approaches that have preoccupied women’s and gender historians. The chapters that follow showcase the work of scholars who draw on critical race theory, postcolonial theory and transnational history to re-examine familiar topics such as biography and oral history, paid and unpaid work, marriage and family, and women’s political action. Taken together, the essays validate the continued relevance — and growth — of history informed by feminist perspectives.

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Information made available by the publisher.