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.
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“... feminism is the attempt of women to grow up, to accept the responsibilities of life, to outgrow those characteristics of childhood—selfishness and unworldliness—that we require our boys to outgrow, but that we permit and by our social system encourage our girls to retain.”
—Henrietta Rodman (1878–?)
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)