The woman suffrage movement in Canada and liberation deferred? The ideas of the English-Canadian Suffragists, 1877-1918: A comparative book review

Type :

Book review

Pages :

6 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

07/14/2009

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Social sciences

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Summary :

Introduction
Catherine Lyle Cleverdon's argument
Analysis of Quebec's journey towards suffrage
Canada's experience with the suffrage movement
The formulation of the Canadian Constitution
Conclusion
References

Abstract

In her work entitled The woman suffrage movement in canada, Catherine Lyle Cleverdon artfully constructs narrative analysis of a social movement that gained little notoriety outside of canada. This particular study is extremely helpful because of its ability to use existing information about the suffrage movement in canada and build upon those facts in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the social development itself. While the suffrage movement in canada was not nearly as dramatic or notable as the corresponding movement in England, the author does a thorough job of explicating the social merits of both movements and why both were crucial to the unfolding of canadian history specifically. In contrast, Carol Lee Bacchi takes a different approach with her book liberation deferred? The ideas of the english-canadian suffragists, 1877-1918, as she seems concerned with reinforcing the idea that the female suffragists did not necessarily fail to induce a social revolution, but rather those individuals in support of this movement never truly had a revolution in mind, but rather a gradual and progressive reform of a system that did not recognize its canadian women as citizens. Bacchi implies that woman's suffrage was not violent and highly-publicized event that demanded immediate change, but instead was the result of continuous pressure of canadian women striving for social change. This supposition actually aligns somewhat with Cleverdon's thesis regarding the non-violence of the suffrage movement in canada compared to the progress of its counterparts in the United States and England. Despite the vague similarity between both texts, Cleverdon invokes a kind of narrative with her work and relies upon characterization to convey a level of passion that maintains the interest of the reader, while Bacchi does not, and instead relies almost entirely on objective fact to explicate the evolution of woman suffrage in canada.