Dreams of Equality: Women on the Canadian Left, 1920-1950 (Canadian Social History Series) - Softcover

Sangster, Joan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 077107946X ISBN 13: 9780771079467

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 1989

Synopsis

Canadian women on the political left in the first half of the twentieth century fought with varying degrees of commitment for women's rights. Women's dreams of equality were in part a vision of economic and class equality, though they also represented profound desires for equality with men - both within their own parties and in the larger society. In both the Communist Party of Canada and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a male-dominated leadership seldom embraced women's causes wholeheartedly or as a doctrinal priority. So-called women's issues, whether birth control, consumer issues, or equal pay, usually took second place to an emphasis on the general needs of workers or farmers. Nonetheless, many women continued to promote their feminist causes through the socialist movement, in the hope that, eventually, the socialist New Jerusalem would see their dreams of equality fulfilled.

In Dreams of Equality, Joan Sangster chronicles in fascinating detail the first tentative stages of a politically aware women's movement in Canada, from the time of women's suffrage to the 1950's when the CPC went into decline and the CCF began to experience the changes that would evolve into the New Democratic Party a decade later.

About this title

About the Author:

Joan Sangster is a professor in the Departments of History and Women's Studies at Trent University.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 077107946X
• ISBN 13: 9780771079467
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 273