Where are the women in Canada’s international history? Breaking Barriers, Shaping Worlds answers this question in a comprehensive volume that explores the role of women in Canadian international affairs.

Foreign policy historians have traditionally focused on powerful men. Though hidden, forgotten, or ignored, this book shows that women have also shaped Canada’s relations with the world over the past century – whether as activists, missionaries, aid workers, diplomats or diplomatic spouses.

Breaking Barriers, Shaping Worlds examines the lives and careers of professional women working abroad as doctors, nurses, or economic development advisors; women fighting for change as anti-war, anti-nuclear, or Indigenous rights activists; and women engaged in traditional diplomacy. This wide-ranging collection reveals the vital contribution of women to the search for global order that has been a hallmark of Canada’s international history.

Jill Campbell-Miller is an adjunct professor in the Department of History at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, and held a SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of History at Carleton University from 2018–2021. The late Greg Donaghy was the director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. His publications include Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr. and Tolerant Allies: Canada and the United States, 1963–1968. Stacey Barker is a historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. She has curated several exhibitions, including World War Women and The Canadian Forces Artists Program – Group 8. Contributors: Stacey Barker, Jill Campbell-Miller, Joe Clark, Susan Colbourn, Sharon Anne Cook, Jonathan Crossen, Greg Donaghy, Eric Fillion, Kim Girouard, Dominique Marshall, Steve Marti, Francine McKenzie, Lorna R. McLean, Patricia E. Roy, David Webster.

Emphasizing the importance of broad participative decision-making, of quiet compromises, and of local domestic work outside the elite world of official diplomats, Breaking Barriers, Shaping Worlds adds to an exciting transformation in our official understanding of foreign policy and what it can achieve.

Asa McKercher, assistant professor, history, Royal Military College of Canada:

This collection will prompt debate. It will prompt reflection. It will surely inspire future scholars to reframe Canadian international history around women and gender.