The history of feminism in Canada has been a gradual struggle aimed at establishing equal rights between women and men. The history of Canadian feminism, like modern, Western feminism in other countries has been divided by scholars into three "waves", each describing a period of intense activism and social change. The use of “waves,” however has been critiqued for its failure to include the feminist activism of, for example, Aboriginal and Québécois women who organized for changes in their own communities as well as for larger social change.
Famous quotes containing the words feminism and/or canada:
“One of the reasons for the failure of feminism to dislodge deeply held perceptions of male and female behaviour was its insistence that women were victims, and men powerful patriarchs, which made a travesty of ordinary people’s experience of the mutual interdependence of men and women.”
—Rosalind Coward (b. 1953)
“This universal exhibition in Canada of the tools and sinews of war reminded me of the keeper of a menagerie showing his animals’ claws. It was the English leopard showing his claws.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)