Analysis Of Canadian Women And The Struggle For Equality By Lorna Marsden

The struggle for equality for women is a long road. For some countries the road has been successful, others have not been, and some have just started. In Canada women have been through an extensive battle for equality. In Lorna R. Marsden’s “Canadian women and the struggle for equality” Marsden outlines the on going struggle for equality for Canadian women. Starting as early as the founding of the country and leading into today’s society, many of the actions women took in order to push for equality are similar to the tactics used by today’s interest groups. The actions they took have become staples such as the use of interest groups to provide one central voice for advocating. In the road to equality it is beneficial for the use of a social

network for individuals to use their powers of position to push for new ideas. In this paper I will argue Loma R Marsden’s “Canadian Women and the Struggle for Equality” outlines the struggles for equality for women, and their fight for equality has become an outline for other groups pushing for equality.
Marsden in her book argues that many of the methods Canadian woman used to to secure equal rights demonstrated early sociological methods. In order to prove her argument Marsden outlines the women’s rights movement through a sociological approach, in order to analyze the different aspects of the movement. The book begins at confederation, when Canada established its independence as country separate from Britain. Confederation despite unifying Canada it left the equality of women in the passenger seat of importance of Canadian politics. Marsden believes women’s equality took the driving seat in Canada in April of 1985, “the equality rights sections embedded in the Canadian Constitution act of 1982 came into effect” . Marsden highlights the embodiment of the time gap from 1985 to 1867, as the entirety of the novel covers this time gap and the various movements that swayed the government to give women the rights they deserved. A woman’s life in Canada in 1860 would look like “a life of marriage and children unless she had a religious calling” whereas in the 1960’s her life would look like “been encouraged in high school to think of a career but not to the exclusion of marriage and children” . The novel looks to recap the history of the women’s rights movement and establish the different events and root causes these changes, that in turn led to a better future.
The core of the book focuses on the aspects of the law changed by the female community through different organizations. Many of these organizations formed made strides in order to achieve equal equality for women by impacting different branches of Canadian life. Nurses an example, organizations like the VON (Victorian Order of Nurses) pushed for women to serve in war efforts. It is accepted that because of the contribution of nurses in World War I, that woman gained suffrage by instilling their own standards for their nursing practices. The Canadian women took charge and formed their own standards for their discipline in accordance that were higher then the British. The role that woman served was not unnoticed, and being noticed was exactly what interest groups needed. Men who were stuck at home, or fighting in the war were impressed with their actions “What these men- as a group- could not overcome was their deeply held view of a women’s place” and “women’s sphere” in society as supporters, helpmates, housewives, mothers, and wives of men” . World War I set forward the motion for the representation of equality for women, and thus pushed forward women’s suffrage. Despite women demonstrating what they were capable of doing some were not sold despite service to their country that women should be given a vote. Whilst women did receive suffrage in the end this showed that women’s efforts way from home were not sufficient enough for some. But it didn’t matter, the VON had done what it accomplished lead a dialogue that would have people question the role of women.
The way the women’s rights movements in Canada changed the quality of life of woman, the labour movement looked to copy in order to improve quality of life for working class.

The women’s rights movement through the use of interest groups was able to sway public policy. The labour movement looked to imploy the same methods in order to sway public policy for better treatment of the working class. The labour movement employed the use of “workplace activism and collective, bargaining broadly based political advocacy, and party politics via support for the New Democratic Party” . Many of the same tactics originated in the women’s rights movement as communities came together to fight an injustice, and demonstrate their discontent to different branches of government. Interest groups became the weapon of choice for discontent communities by connecting together in order to have a larger voice in order to gain regional or national attention. Marsden highlights the importance of organizations as it leads to “common understandings of issues, the formation of powerful alliances, and a powerful voice for women who could not vote yet, hold public office or occupy, the public sphere” . Interest groups allowed for disadvantaged groups to hold some form of power, and voice. In the women’s rights movement in Canada these groups were able to educate women about the limitations of laws in Canada that led changes in provincial and federal laws. In the labour movement the same interest groups lead to the creation of unions that protected the rights of the working force. Interest groups are the footing of promotion of rights and these organizations would be the ones who spoke on the behalf of those who had no

voice.
Interests groups were the medium in which the women of Canada were to have their voice heard. Lorna Marsden in her journal highlights the importance of many interests group and what impact they had on living conditions for women. Interest groups in the words of Mario Levesque looked to have their voices heard in large groups and attempt to influence public policy. The amplification of women’s voice was the purposeful intent of interest groups and hence the reasons why they are important. After confederation, there was an increasing demand for change one of the problems that women in organizations were confronted with was how to have a small community be heard by a provincial or federal government. Mario Levesque in his publication mapping a way forward addressed what he believed the best method to use in order to gain national attention. He believes the best method to be “collaborative methodology” this method included “draw upon the concepts of policy communities and network analysis to highlight the value of examining collaboration patterns around actors” . The same theory that Mario Levesque proposes is demonstrated in “Canadian Women and the Struggle for Equality”. In the late 19th century a collaborative effort in order to combine the thoughts of all organizations into one lump understanding of core issues. NCWC led the creation of an umbrella organization in order to focus on the primary issues of many organizations remains a key organization that “women use to advance their issues in Canada … it has continued over a century as Canadians have been torn by religious, political, and ethnic identities, provincial struggles, wars, strikes, and ideological divisions” . The creation of the NCWC would be important to Canada as by collecting women’s opinions and creating a central idea it allowed for the government to hear one clear voice rather than several. Groups like the NCWC were the earliest organizations that created a broader engagement process by “(1) identifying issues; (2) identifying potential engagement participants; (3) mapping collaboration linkages between interest groups identified in step 2 and identifying the roles played by each in collaborative projects; (4) analysing data for potential engagement partners and roles” . The creation of umbrella interest groups was the pinnacle in the way women changed Canada and to Mario Levesque the best way for political groups to gain influence.

What could social movements offer that lobby and reform groups offer that it couldn’t? It has been made clear and simple that “none of the reformed legislation in the provinces or at the federal level was created without pressure from human rights and women’s rights groups. None of the legislative changes escaped the attention of women’s organizations” . Without Women’s right’s groups none of the desired changes would have occurred so what role does the social movement have in all this? Social movements unlike lobbyists movements are responsible in a university setting according to Robert Huish for having “a historic impact on the academy, the onus is ultimately on the faculty to push new ideas and innovations into the university” . New ideas must be taught to those not forced upon them. When something is pushed upon someone others might believe it to be unfair and to resent against it. In the case of the women’s right movement it was critical that equality was promoted, so that it would not be undermined. One of the most notable examples of promotion of equality changes was in the person’s case. The person’s case led by the famous five led the fight for women to sit in the Upper Chamber the Senate of Canada. Females were forbidden from being senators as they were not seen by laws as “qualified persons”. This case demonstrated the importance of social networks as another way to improve women’s quality of life by demonstrating how “women who were prominent through their work and leadership used their networks to change an important law” . The importance of the women in a predominant area of Canadian Politics’ led to women being able to hold seats in the senate and been considered able bodied persons. Activism is while great method is limited because there must be individuals willing to listen to the activists. In the case of the social networks there is already a seed in place that can grow and in this instance allow women to take a seat in the senate.
In conclusion Canadian Women and the Struggle for equality outlines the course of history women have had to endure in order to receive equal treatment of men. From their use of interest groups to allow the government to have a unified voice to hear what women wanted changed. Social networks also as a method of internal reform as individuals used their positions in their respected positions in order to implement changes.