Suchergebnisse

AbstractScholars of Canadian history have been remiss in overlooking conservative religious women, especially when such women claimed to be feminists. Given the commonly shared assumption that second‐wave feminism was tied to secularism, the idea that religious women could be committed feminists seems implausible. However, some conservative Christian women, including evangelicals and Pentecostals, considered themselves to be feminists, even as they actively opposed abortion. The Rev. Bernice Gerard (1923–2008) was a Pentecostal pastor, a media personality and a municipal politician in Vancouver from 1977 to 1980. Researching her life through using her own life writing provides a case study for grappling with larger questions about conservativism and feminism. In 2000, Gerard, the self‐proclaimed feminist, was named as the most significant spiritual figure in British Columbia in the twentieth century. My biographical work about her pays particular attention to her provocative and seemingly contradictory convictions and points to how she resolved the conceptual tensions that framed her religiosity using a process of 'self‐authoring'. Theoretical frameworks from the sociology of religion challenge Western feminism's implicit biases and provide useful ways to frame the complexities and paradoxes that arise in the lives of conservative women.

In 1913, the Canadian government introduced The Agricultural Instruction Act, a measure which granted ten million dollars to the provinces over ten years to aid agriculture. The Conservatives predicted that the Act would help in "aiding and advancing the farming industry by instruction in agriculture" but this paper argues that, ironically, the funding actually served to heighten rural discontent, not assuage it. By examining public documents and the rural press, the paper explores the rationale, rhetoric, and politics of this initiative. The funding designated for women's groups is closely examined to determine its impact on the growth of groups like the Women's Institutes. ; En 1913, le gouvernement canadien adopta la Loi de l'Instruction agricole, une mesure qui octroyait 10 millions de dollars aux provinces sur une période de dix ans afin d'aider l'agriculture. D'après les Conservateurs, cette loi permettrait de soutenir et de faire progresser l'industrie agricole en misant sur l'enseignement dans ce domaine. On soutient ici, cependant, que, ironiquement, la subvention intensifia de fait le mécontentement du monde rural plutôt que de l'apaiser. S'appuyant sur des documents publics et la presse rurale, l'auteure de l'article explore le raisonnement, la rhétorique et les politiques de cette initiative. Les fonds attribués aux groupes de femmes sont minutieusement examinés afin d'établir leur effet sur la croissance de groupes tels que les Instituts féminins.

AbstractWhile historians have explored the links between first‐wave feminism and religion, particularly Christianity, in considerable detail in both Canada and the United States, the nature of the relationship between religion, irreligion and second‐wave feminism has received little scholarly attention. This forum explores the complex and troubled intersections between second‐wave feminism, religion and irreligion among Jewish women, both feminist and non‐feminist, a Christian Pentecostal female politician and nonbelieving women.