Book Review: And On That Farm He Had a Wife by Monda Halpern
This paper offers a critical review of Monda Halpern's And On That Farm He Had a Wife: Ontario Farm Women and Feminism, 1900–1970. The review examines Halpern's central argument that Ontario farm women were active social feminists rather than passive bystanders to the feminist movement. It evaluates her treatment of key themes including the distinction between social and equity feminism, the home economics movement, Women's Institutes, and post-suffrage political activity. While praising Halpern's thorough archival research and her rehabilitation of farm women's historical reputation, the review also identifies gaps, particularly her failure to critically examine the nature of the feminism these women actually endorsed.
- Introduction: Overview of Halpern's book and its historiographical context
- Halpern's Central Argument: Social vs. Equity Feminism: Distinguishing social feminism from equity feminism in Halpern's framework
- Farm Women and Political Participation After Suffrage: Farm women's activism after winning the right to vote
- The Home Economics Movement and Its Feminist Limits: Home economics as women's platform and its feminist ambiguities
- Women's Institutes and the Problem of 'Nurturer' Feminism: WI's nurturer-based feminism and its ideological tensions
- Strengths and Shortcomings of Halpern's Approach: Evaluating Halpern's research depth and conceptual blind spots
- Conclusion: Overall assessment of the book's contribution and limitations
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The review balances genuine praise for Halpern's archival rigor with pointed criticism of her conceptual gaps, avoiding both uncritical endorsement and dismissiveness.
- It engages substantively with the book's theoretical distinctions — social feminism versus equity feminism — rather than merely summarizing plot or argument.
- The reviewer demonstrates independent critical thinking by questioning whether the feminism farm women practiced was truly feminist at all, a tension the book itself does not fully resolve.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models evaluative critique in a book review format: it identifies the author's thesis, tests it against the evidence presented, and locates specific moments where the argument is underdeveloped or contradictory. This is a useful demonstration of how to assess scholarly claims rather than simply report them.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with the book's thesis and historiographical context, then moves through thematic chapters — suffrage, home economics, Women's Institutes — evaluating each in turn. It closes by acknowledging the book's contributions while noting what a more complete treatment would require. The structure is roughly topic-by-topic, mirroring the book's own organization.
Introduction
When we read a book that raises important issues, we find ourselves in the company of a more knowledgeable partner who challenges our preconceived notions and urges us to think more deeply. This is exactly how I felt while reading Monda Halpern's And On That Farm He Had a Wife — a book about Ontario farm women who have popularly been categorized as indifferent souls largely uninterested in the feminist movement.
Historians have mostly discussed these women with hidden contempt or indifference, as if accusing them of passivity and inactive participation — qualities some believed negatively affected the feminist cause. The book was written to counter such allegations. Halpern maintains that historians failed to do justice to the role of Ontario farm women because they "either avoided the subject of Ontario farm women and feminism or quickly dismissed the connection" (p. 3).
Halpern's Central Argument: Social vs. Equity Feminism
Halpern emerges as a responsible, detail-oriented historian with the mission to refute negative observations made by historians about the role of farm women in the feminist movement. She argues that, contrary to popular belief, farm women were highly progressive individuals who advocated social feminism rather than equity feminism. Halpern defines both terms as clearly as she can, but many readers will remain somewhat confused about how the two differed in practice. Their meanings are clear in theory, yet whether they were truly distinct in practice is a question that largely goes unanswered throughout the book.
Social feminism, in her view, is a form of feminism that holds women receive unequal treatment because of gender bias embedded in society, not because of biological differences. Equity feminism, on the other hand, is the less transformative variant, advocating for greater equality within existing male-dominated social structures rather than seeking to remake those structures. Halpern believes Ontario farm women were social feminists who "sought for women to remake, not simply fit into" existing social arrangements (p. 12).
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.