A Diversity of Women: Ontario, 1945–1980 ed. by Joy Parr (review)

6t4 The Canadian Historical Review men'semployment wassecure, community andhomeimprovements couldenhance respectability andpromote familycompanionability. But the delicatebalanceof working-class life was also always vulnerable toshifting circumstances. In addition totheusualthreats of birth,death, desertion, disease, or evena coldwinter,theequilibrium of Richmond Heights's households in the•92oswasdisrupted byculturalandeconomic change. The lossof skilledandsemi-skilled jobs throughde-industrialization madethe oldidealof malebreadwinner increasingly unattainable, evenasnewemployment opportunities in an expanding service sector opened for daughters of working-class families . The result was a clash of cultures in which an old domestic ideal, based ona malewage,gave waytothenewimperatives of afeminized, middle-class,mass culture. Mortonshows the differenteffects of thesechanges alonggenerationalandgender lines,arguing thatbytheendofthedecade, young, singlemen andwomenfacedeachotheracross a growingdivideof conflicting expectations. The working-class sonraisedat hometo a domestic idealdefinedin maletermscouldonlywatchin mounting frustration astheworking-dass 'girlofthenewday'stepped confidently intothefuturein 'highheelsandsilkstockings.' Of course, breakingawayfrom malewagedependency did not ensurea livingfemalewage,whichsuggests thatthetransition Morton describes wasnotasrevolutionary assheimplies. Butthegapbetween women's aspirations andtheirachievements onlyunderscores hercontentionthat 'thehomeandthe workplace areinterconnected in innumerable ways, nottheleastofwhichisthewaythattensions emerging in one arenaalsoappearin the other.'This is a thoughtful, wideranging book thatengages working-class history onthecrucial question of change, whileplacing gender firmlyatthecentre of itsanalysis. CATHERINE CAVANAUGH Athabasca University A Diversity ofWomen: Ontario, •945-•98o.Edited by1o¾ PARR. Toronto: University ofToronto Press •996. Pp.x,335, illus.$50.00doth,$2L95 paper JoyParr'sA Diversity ofWomen: Ontario, •945-•98o,a collection often essays, is a welcome additionto the published canonof women'shistory .Asthetitlepromises, thebookincludes several different kindsof women'sexperiences in the three-and-a-half decades followingthe Second WorldWar. If anyfurtherproofwereneeded to convince studentsof women'shistorythat the category 'women'is not a homo- BookReviews6t5 geneous one,hereit is. The essays dismissthe ideathat eitherthe postwar periodorthesecond waveof feminismwerecharacterized by conformity or homogeneity. Instead, diversity is highlighted bytelling the storiesof womenin settings as variousas the suburbs and the farms,thekitchens andthepicketlines. Althoughthe editormakesno formaldivision,therearereallytwo parts to this book.The first five contributors {MarianaValverde, VeronicaStrong-Boag, JoyParr,JoanSangster, and FrancaIacovetta) havewrittenaboutthe postwar yearsin an effort to providesome historical antidote to commonly held stereotypes. Thesefive essays makea solidcontribution to debunking the mythsassociated with the t95os, and theyare a welcome collection not onlyfor the general reader,but especially for classroom use in socialhistory,women's history,andOntariohistory .courses. One of the centralorganizing themesof the bookis the contradiction betweenprescribed behaviour and real-lifeexperiences. Moral regulation is Valverde's focus, asshecontrasts theideals espoused by social planners suchasthemembers of the Canadian YouthCommission with the behaviours and dresscodesexhibitedby somenonconformist youngpeople. Grownwomenworriedabouttheirownconformity ,too.JoanSangster recounts, for example, her mother's worry aboutwhattheneighbours wouldthinkasshepacked her childrenoff to daycaresoshecouldworkparttime outside her home.Although shecouldnot haveknownit at the time, the workingmotherwas becoming the norm ratherthan the exception. We actually hear the voices of someof thosesuburban neighbourhood womenin Veronica Strong-Boag's contribution, 'Their Sideof the Story:Women'sVoices from OntarioSuburbs •945-•96o.' Thisis an important complement to her earlieressay,'Home Dreams:Women and the SuburbanExperiment •945-•96o' {cue•99•), because hereher informants try to explainin theirownvoices the consistency theyfoundbetween their 'commitment to familialismand segregated genderroles.'Looking back,the womenwere 'bothcriticaland defensive aboutwhat they weredoingandhopingfor.' Franca Iacovetta drawsonthestories of 'newCanadians,' emphasizing againthe book'sthemeof diversity. At the sametime, Iacovetta takes onafewstereotypes, too.Specifically, shedebunks themythology of immigrant womenasvictims orpassive players, andhighlights the waysin whichthesewomen'actively remadetheirlives,selectively integrating someof the thingsthat Canadacouldofferthem,all the while playinga centralrole in the shapingof their own and their families'livesin thenewsetting.' Parr'sownessay, 'Shopping for a 6•6 The Canadian Historical Review Good Stove: A Parable about Gender, Design andtheMarket,' gives us a sample ofher newattention towomen's rolesaspurchasing agents forthehome,andwhetsthereader's appetite formorefromherprolifichandonthegendered natureofconsumerism in postwar Canada. The writersin the secondhalf (EsterReiter,Nora Cebotarev, MarleneBrantCastellano andJanice Hill, NancyAdamson, andLinda Cardinal) turnto women's activism in the •96os,•97os,and•98os. Specifically, theyfocusonthatactivism in several forums, including: organized labour,farmwomen'sorganizations, FirstNations women, thewomen's liberation movement, andfrancophone women.The essays thatconcentrate onorganizational aspects ofwomen's experience takethebookintothemorerecent pastbylooking atfivevignettes of feministactivity.Theyleaveno doubtin the reader's mind that the second waveof feminismwasindeeddiversified according to class, language, culture,age,andphilosophical differences. Thishalf of the bookis alsoaboutdeconstructing myth - this time the myth of a homogeneous women'smovement. Reitercelebrates the activism displayed by the LanarkStrikersin Dunnville in •964 andoffersa differentinterpretation 'forthose who believe thatgendersegregation andlow-wage jobsreflected women's...