Book Review: And On That Farm He Had a Wife by Monda Halpern

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).

Farm Women and Political Participation After Suffrage

Halpern has paid careful attention to documenting women's activities both before and after they won the right to vote. To finally be recognized as legal "persons" was a monumental achievement for women, but it was not their final destination. Most women continued working for various causes even after this landmark victory. Halpern devotes an entire chapter to the political and social activities of women after suffrage, though her argument centers on the contested question of whether historians are correct to classify these activities as feminist in nature.

The author appears to agree with other historians who hold that all women's activities can be categorized as feminist activities. She does not clearly acknowledge that a difference — however small — exists between the feminist movement and the broader women's movement. While all activities aimed at female empowerment can be called feminist in spirit, the technical definition of feminist activity does not necessarily confirm this equivalence. Halpern does not state her position definitively but presents the conflict clearly, leaving readers to decide whether the women's movement and the feminist movement were truly the same thing.

Conclusion

The greatest strength of the book is its exploration of the general lifestyle of farm women in Ontario. Halpern's research shows that these women were involved in activities well beyond farm labor, and that they were not the passive group earlier historians assumed. However, it must also be noted that farm women did not always engage in these activities with an explicitly feminist stance or with the promotion of the feminist cause as their primary goal. They were, in large part, doing what they believed was expected of them, since community service was inseparable from the culture of family farming. Halpern's book is an important contribution to Canadian women's history, but it is strongest as a work of archival recovery and most open to challenge as a work of feminist theory.