Feminisms
in Canada and Quebec, 1960-2010

Féminismes au Canada et au Québec,
1960-2010

My
name is Marguerite Andersen; I am writing to you as a member of a working group
of women who are planning to tell the stories of the second wave feminist
movement in Canada
in a series of books to be published in coming years (see previous posts). The
diversity of feminism, including the complexities of gender, race, class,
geography, culture, dis/ability, language, sexual identity, and age are central
to the project.

This
group of about thirty met for the first time in February 2008 at the University of Ottawa. At the meeting, we created a
Working Committee on Second Wave History with members Beth Atcheson (Lawyer,
Toronto), Constance Backhouse ( Professor of Law and University Research
Chair, University of Ottawa), Francine Descarries (Professor of Sociology
and l’Institut de recherché et d’études féministes, l’Université
du Québec à Montréal), Sylvia D. Hamilton (Filmmaker, University of
King’s College, Halifax) and Tracey Lindberg (Associate Professor of Law,
University of Ottawa).

I am writing to you because I have volunteered to help
gather and edit autobiographical texts for a book in English that we hope to
publish in 2010. I would like to ask you whether you would consider writing an
autobiographical text of 750-1200 words which would tell readers how you came
to feminism. Here are some questions which may help you in making your
decision:

·
What
prompted you to begin living and working as a feminist?

·
Was
there a precise turning point in your life?

·
Who
inspired you?

·
What
joyous, painful, funny or other experiences did you have?

·
What
transformations took place?

·
What
new skills did you acquire?

·
How
were people around you reacting to your new self?

The
following is a tentative timeline for the work on this volume of the series:

31/08/2008 First call for submissions

15/1/2009 Deadline for
submissions

30/9/ 2008 Creation of a committee of
three to edit this book (any volunteers?)

Second call for submissions

31/10/2008 Definition the role of
committee members. Establish criteria for selection of texts to be chosen for
publication.

15/01/ 2009 Deadline for reception
of submissions

28/02/2009 Choice of 40-50 texts to be
published and confirmations re permissions

31/03/2009 Request bios and permission forms
from contributors

31/10/2009 Texts and bios have been edited

30/11/2009 Preface to be written

30/11/2009 Order of texts has been established

15/01/2010 The manuscript is ready

I truly hope that you will be able to participate in
this very unique project. And please, tell your friends about this project and
encourage them to submit a text. Submissions should be sent to: [email protected]
. You may reach me at (416) 361-5070 for further information.

If you have an interest in organizing a similar volume in French, please let me
know that too and I will pass your name along to the series co-editors.