The dichotomy of the women's political movement in Canada

The article discusses the features of the women's political movement in Canada. The origin and development of the women's movement in Canada fits into the overall context of women's struggle for their rights in the most socio-politically and economically developed countries of the world. The article examines the main stages of this socio-political movement, which had an enormous impact on the transformation of the modern state and society of Canada. In the period between 1880 and 1920 there was a constant increase in the activity of Canadian women. Their level of education increased, which prompted them to leave home insulation. The movement for electoral rights for women began in the late 1880s through the formation of organizations at the local and provincial level. It should be noted that many of them had the task of the struggle for the opening of schools and universities for women. In 1918, the struggle of Canadian women reached some success: they won the right to vote in national elections, but they still had quite a long struggle for the right to vote in elections at the provincial level, it ended only in 1940. The second wave of Canadian feminism is characterized by a growing conviction of its participants that men and women do not essentially differ from each other, and the differences are formed by the social environment. Women began to question the very foundation of Canadian society with its dominant ideology of paternalism, which logically led to their awareness of the need to radically change traditional ideas about the place of women in society. Non-white, disabled women, representatives of the lower social strata, lesbians had different ideas on the place of women in families claiming that there are many more problems of women in Canada than white and middle class women say. In 1980, small, local women's groups began to appear. They represented the needs of particular categories of women and allowed women from marginalized groups to express their concern that the majority of white, heterosexual feminists do not adequately take into account differences in race, religion, ethnicity, age and sexual orientation. At the political level in the 1980s, all provinces increased the representation of women in legislative bodies of the regions. During the following years, almost all parties of Canada significantly changed the conditions for equal participation of women in the governing body. The third wave of the feminist movement of women of Canada is designed to intensify the feminist movement, to achieve the overall goal the second wave has not, yet with a focus on addressing specific women's issues that are characteristic of different regions of Canada, as well as to take into account the current changes in the world that have a contradictory impact on women. Despite the existing problems and contradictions, typical of any social movements, women's political movement has had and continues to have a major impact on public consciousness and public policy of Canada, contributing to the formulation of optimal solutions for many social and political problems.

Keywords

Authors

References