Demanding Equality, the new book from Joan Sangster, argues that Canadian feminism was polyphonic; it was a chorus of diverse political voices rather than solos sung by a few women leaders. It is difficult to distinguish a singular feminist consciousness or movement: rather, groups of feminists fashioned different dreams of equality, freedom, and social transformation.

As repugnant as these nouveau-cowboy colonizers are, they are not, as individuals, the problem: they are expressions of a system that is destroying the earth and exploiting working people, cleverly justified with an ideology of do-good philanthropy. They are given too much of a free ride by an uncritical media. The answer to polluting industry on earth is not to send it to the moon but create socialist solutions on earth.

Labour history shows us that working people can make great gains when they come together to challenge the power of capital. But it also reminds us that workers and the labour movement must be vigilant. They must continue to resist rollbacks of hard-won rights and protections, and they must continue to push for new victories. The history of labour struggles over issues related to gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace holds important lessons that we can incorporate into our discussions of how to tackle these issues today.

A hundred years ago this week, the first group of women in Canada won the right to vote after a decades-long battle. It happened in Manitoba on January 28th, 1916; other provinces eventually followed suit. Michael Enright speaks with Joan Sangster about this little-known and seldom-taught chapter of Canadian history.