Lorna Marsden has written an important book, sweeping in its scope, about how women have achieved gender equality in many aspects of life in Canada, but have fallen short on certain of those matters that count most.
To make her point that we have come a long way baby over the last 150 years but still have many miles to go, in Canadian Women and the Struggle for Equality: The Road to Gender Equality Since 1867 Marsden uses the device of comparing life for a young woman living in 1867, when Canada achieved Confederation, and a young woman of today:
A woman in Canada today reading the accounts of the agitation for women’s rights at the end of the nineteenth century must wonder why in 1867 women had so few rights … But the woman of 1867, should she return to life now, might wonder not only why women have not achieved equality, but also how their rights could be so entangled. In other words, the tale’s final chapter has...
Rosemary Speirs is a former political commentator who wrote about national and provincial politics for The Toronto Star. She is also the founding chair of Equal Voice, an influential volunteer organization promoting the election of more women.
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