Demanding Equality

In a wide-ranging survey of Canadian feminism from the 1880s to the 1980s, Demanding Equality reveals a continuous, vibrant, and often contentious search for equality, autonomy, and dignity.

In a wide-ranging survey of Canadian feminism from the 1880s to the 1980s, Demanding Equality reveals a continuous, vibrant, and often contentious search for equality, autonomy, and dignity.

Joan Sangster is Vanier Professor Emeritus at Trent University and a past president of the Canadian Historical Association/Société historique du Canada. She is the author of One Hundred Years of Struggle: The History of Women and the Vote in Canada; Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada; and The Iconic North: Cultural Constructions of Aboriginal Life in Postwar Canada.

Sarah Glassford, University of Windsor:

"In Demanding Equality, Joan Sangster demonstrates the confidence and virtuosity of a well-seasoned scholar at the top of her game."

Rebecca Priegert Coulter, Professor Emerita, University of Western Ontario.:

"Demanding Equality is a formidable book, wide in scope, commendably readable, expansive in content, and convincing in analysis."

Elaine Coburn, York University:

Sangster’s precisely written yet wideranging book is a tour de force that chronicles the struggles for ‘equality, autonomy, and dignity’ in all of their rich complexity.

Magda Fahrni, Universite du Quebec a Montreal:
"There are few, if any, historians better placed than Joan Sangster to write a history of a century of feminism in Canada... Demanding Equality is a book that is at once capacious in its scope and accessibly written."

Linda Kealey, professor emerita, Department of History, University of New Brunswick, and author of Enlisting Women for the Cause: Women, Labour, and the Left in Canada:

A thought-provoking narrative! Sangster interrogates previous historical accounts of feminism in Canada and emphasizes the multiple voices and organizations involved in this ‘collective project of resistance.’

Sarah Nickel, associate professor, Department of Indigenous Studies, University of Saskatchewan, and author of Assembling Unity: Indigenous Politics, Gender, and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs:

Demanding Equality leans into the messiness of feminist ideas and actions to reshape the boundaries of feminism. Expertly weaving complex experience across time and space, Sangster’s compelling analysis illuminates both the possibilities and limitations of feminist work.

Marilyn Lake, professorial fellow in history, University of Melbourne, and author of Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism:

To understand the history of feminism we need to look beyond the experience of the UK or US. Demanding Equality is both a vital contribution to the international history of feminism and vivid demonstration of the movement’s local, plural and diverse origins. It shows that women’s experiences of work and ethnicity shaped collective demands attuned to class and community. Joan Sangster has written a work of major importance that not only adds to our understanding of the history of feminism, but also suggests a new way to write it.

Dominique Clément, professor of sociology, University of Alberta, and author of Equality Deferred: Sex Discrimination and British Columbia’s Human Rights State, 1953–84:

A superb book that should be required reading for any course on the history of feminism in Canada. Joan Sangster’s decades of work in this field are reflected here in this masterful grasp of the scholarship. Few other scholars in Canada could have produced a comparable study. The author has gone to immense effort to offer a genuinely pan-Canadian study that challenges numerous myths and misconceptions about the history of feminism.

Sheila Rowbotham, author of Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action:

Enriched by Joan Sangster's personal experience as an activist and a teacher, Demanding Equality is vital for readers both new to and familiar with Canadian radical women's struggles. This is the admirable result of a lifetime of research.