Where are the women in Canada's international history? Breaking Barriers, Shaping Worlds answers this question in a comprehensive volume that explores the role of women in Canadian international affairs.
Foreign policy historians have traditionally focused on powerful men. Though hidden, forgotten, or ignored, this book shows that women have also shaped Canada's relations with the world over the past century – whether as activists, missionaries, aid workers, diplomats or diplomatic spouses.
Breaking Barriers, Shaping Worlds examines the lives and careers of professional women working abroad as doctors, nurses, or economic development advisors; women fighting for change as anti-war, anti-nuclear, or Indigenous rights activists; and women engaged in traditional diplomacy. This wide-ranging collection reveals the vital contribution of women to the search for global order that has been a hallmark of Canada's international history.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: "Where are the Women?" / Jill Campbell-Miller & Greg Donaghy
Part 1: Women in Missions, Aid, and Development
1 Quietly Contesting Patriarchy: Dr. Jessie MacBean's Medical Work in South China, 1925–35 / Kim Girouard
2 A Mission for Modernity: Canadian Women in Medical and Nursing Education in India, 1946–66 / Jill Campbell-Miller
3 Life Stories, Wife stories: Women Advisors on Economic Development / David Webster
Part 2: Women in International Resistance
4 Historically Invisible: The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1914–29 / Sharon Cook and Lorna McLean
5 The Voice of Women, the Baby Tooth Survey, and the Search for Security in the Atomic Age / Susan Colbourn
6 Marie Smallface Marule: An Indigenous Internationalist / Jonathan Crossen
Part 3: Women in Diplomacy
7 P.K. Page and the Art of Diplomacy: An Ambassadorial Wife in Brazil / Eric Fillion
8 Jean Casselman Wadds: Patriation, Dinner Party Wars, and a Political Diplomat / Steve Marti and Francine McKenzie
9 Flora Macdonald: Secretary of State for External Affairs, 1979–80 / Joe Clark
Conclusion: Breaking Historiographic Barriers / Dominique Marshall
Epilogue – Greg Donaghy: An Appreciation / Patricia E. Roy
Bibliography; Contributors; Index
About the Author :
Jill Campbell-Miller is an adjunct professor in the Department of History at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, and held a SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of History at Carleton University from 2018–2021. The late Greg Donaghy was the director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. His publications include Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr. and Tolerant Allies: Canada and the United States, 1963–1968. Stacey Barker is a historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. She has curated several exhibitions, including World War Women and The Canadian Forces Artists Program – Group 8. Contributors: Stacey Barker, Jill Campbell-Miller, Joe Clark, Susan Colbourn, Sharon Anne Cook, Jonathan Crossen, Greg Donaghy, Eric Fillion, Kim Girouard, Dominique Marshall, Steve Marti, Francine McKenzie, Lorna R. McLean, Patricia E. Roy, David Webster.
