The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada: Second Edition

Cleverdon, Catherine L.

ISBN 10: 0802062180 / ISBN 13: 9780802062185

Published by University of Toronto Press, Toronto, ON, 1974

About this Item

Clean, tight, unmarked; age tanned; light sunning to spine; otherwise absolute minimal wear; appears unread; The first edition of this book was written in 1950. Cleverdon deals with the struggle for the suffrage in each province and on the federal level. Women received the suffrage first in the prairie provinces where there existed a feeling that they as much as men had opened up the land and that therefore, the vote, if they wanted it, was their due. Only in Quebec, the book records, did the struggle, bitterly contested, come closest to developing into a real fight following the British and US pattern. This volume contains indispensable background materials for the story of women's social and political growth.

Seller Inventory # 008876

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada: Second Edition
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Toronto, ON
• Publication Date: 1974
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802062180
• ISBN 13: 9780802062185
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The history of woman suffrage in Canada has been largely ignored in the standard accounts of our past and has attracted little attention-at least until recently-from research students. The major exception is Catherine Cleverdon's study. Written nearly a quarter of a century ago, it remains the authoritative, indeed the only complete account of the suffragist struggle which took place here.

Women won the franchise through the efforts of small groups across the country who devoted their energies to the cause over a considerable number of years. The author tells the spirited story of their encounters with the recalcitrant legislatures of the dominion and the provinces, of their frustrations and disappointments at the indifference with which their struggles often were met, and of the final culmination of their efforts in victory-in Quebec, only in 1940.

With this work Catherine Cleverdon charted a pioneer course through an almost completely unexplored field, marshalling skilfully a massive bulk of source material to great effect, adding lively details and engaging anecdotes to make the account both informative and vivid. She deals with the struggle for the suffrage in each province and on the federal level. Women received the suffrage first in the prairie provinces where there existed a feeling that they as much as men had opened up the land and that therefore, the vote, if they wanted it, was their due. Only in Quebec, the book records, did the struggle, bitterly contested, come closest to developing into a real fight following the British and US pattern.

This volume contains indispensable background materials for the story of women's social and political growth. Its republication is testimony to the new climate of interest in the study of the history of women in Canada.

About the Authors

Catherine L. Cleverdon, before her retirement was head of the history department at Roosevelt High School, Yonkers.

Ramsay Cook is a professor emeritus in the Department of History at York University and the former general editor of The Dictionary of Canadian Biography.