Marsden S Canadian Women Strengths and Weaknesses

Canadian Women and the Struggle for Equality, Marsden (2012) focuses on how far women have come in the past 150 years towards gaining equality with men in terms of law, work, marriage and society. Her own position in the movement towards equality serves as the point-of-view of this socio-historical account, which covers a great many years but always with the purpose being to show that change and progress towards equal rights for women has certainly been made. The strength of the book is that it proves this time and time again, showing continuously how (though there is still some distance to cover) women of today now have more opportunities than they did a century and a half ago in Canada. One of the weaknesses of the book, however, is that it fails to reflect some of the more radical feminist action over the decades in favor of a more moderate and mainstream account of this history. This is an understandable if not regrettable approach, because Marsden is seeking to effect broad and popular appeal in terms of audience. But a more accurate history might well have included some deeper account or analysis of all aspects of the feminist movement in Canada over the years. But Marsden's main goal is not to provide such a history: instead, she sets out to highlight some of the accomplishments of women for equal rights and the part she played in this activity as well. For this reason, Marsden's work makes a significant contribution to the literature on the women's movement in Canada over the years and by addressing specific topics, from the war to the law, should serve as a modest representation of the lengths to which women have come to achieve and maintain their rights.

One of the best things about the book is the way in which Marsden identifies the origin of Canada's laws: "In all the former colonies, Canadian laws are based largely on those of Great Britain" (Marsden, 2012, p. 26). What she shows from this point is that the patriarchal society that existed in England essentially transferred to Canada and was codified into the law books. Thus, the same country that for so many years denied inheritance rights to women now dictated policy in Canada. Yet, women over the 19th and 20th centuries forged a path ahead, marching for the suffrage movement alongside the reforms, revolutions and wars happening in France and in America: "suffrage expansion" was something that women fought hard for all over the West -- and Marsden gives ample space to showing how and why this happened. In short, Canadian women inherited a law system that was designed against them but by organizing and holding conferences, women were able to challenge and change the institutional order and laws that repressed them. Thus, this depiction of Canadian history is an accurate one that Marsden nails with considerable verve.

The same tenacity is extended to her depiction of the woman's role in the War -- and just as she does with her assessment of where Canada's laws came from, she provides an equally accurate analysis of Canada's wartime policies: "From Confederation and up until the Statute of Westminster in 1931, Canada's role in any international affairs ... was directed by British policy and from London. However, as the experience of women nurses in the South African War shows, not all policy was directed by London" (Marsden, p. 59). In other words, women were at a position in the war, serving at a closer-than-the-gentlemen-in-London range, making decisions on their own authority, exercising their own caution, their own judgment, and providing a unique service that no one else was providing -- and thus securing a new position for women everywhere as a result. Marsden gives attention to the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) which grew out of a grassroots phenomenon in Vancouver -- namely, the Vancouver Local Council of Women, who sought to draw "the attention of the National Council of Women to the needs of rural and remote areas for nursing services" (Marsden, p. 60). Out of this entity came a movement that would eventually grow into one organization after another banding together to push for women's rights in every capacity throughout this era. For example, the Organizational Society of Spouses of Military members was formed at the end of the 19th century and helped promote "change to the Parliamentary Committee on Equality Rights" (Marsden, p. 88). By the time of the Second World War, Marsden relates how women began serving overseas, forming divisions in the armed forces and in the navy by 1945. All of this was a natural evolution for women once the path of progress began to be pushed in the 19th century -- and Marsden spends sufficient time fleshing these moments out.

Drawing nearer to the modern era, however, Marsden steers clear of potentially controversial perspectives. Considering that in the post-War era, radicalism and revolution were becoming mainstays in every industrialized nation, it was bound to happen that radical feminist movements would appear to help pave the way for a future where women received far more rights than ever before. Yet here is where one of Marsden's main weaknesses comes into play. She is so determined to give a "clean" and appealing history of women for women that she downplays (by avoiding) any real discussion of the more radical or extreme movements that occurred in the post-War era. Instead, she focuses on landmark issues that altered the course of events, such as the birth control pill becoming legal along with abortion in limited circumstances in 1969 or the establishment of the Civil Marriage Act of Parliament in 2005, which made legal all same-sex marriages in Canada. Thus, Marsden does not miss any of the significantly progressive points in the history of Canada and its struggle towards equality -- but she does leave out some of the more controversial details of the subject so as to make the record look more polished.