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Education History

Democracy's Angels

The Work of Women Teachers

by (author) Kristina R. Llewellyn

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2012
Category
History, Women's Studies
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780773540507
    Publish Date
    Sep 2012
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773540361
    Publish Date
    Sep 2012
    List Price
    $110.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773586956
    Publish Date
    Sep 2012
    List Price
    $110.00

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Description

Following the Second World War, women teachers filled a labour shortage in schools and Canadian newspapers rushed to feature their presence. One caption even called the teachers "pretty enough to send dad to school with junior." Envisioned as shining examples of "proper" femininity, female educators were expected to produce a new generation of housewives for a strong democratic nation. Democracy's Angels is a daring exploration of the limitations of that vision, which ultimately confined women to teaching a model of citizenship that privileged masculinity and reduced women's authority. In an analytical tour-de-force, Kristina Llewellyn unravels the ideological underpinnings of democracy as the objective for postwar education. Schools were charged with producing rational, autonomous, politically engaged citizens, but women were not associated with these qualities. Claims to scholarly knowledge, professional autonomy, and administrative positions were reserved for male teachers. Using rigorous interdisciplinary scholarship and extensive interviews with former teachers, Llewellyn reveals the ways in which women negotiated and even found opportunities within these troubling limitations. An unflinching look at the difficult realities of women's work experiences in postwar Canada, Democracy's Angels illustrates the intrinsic connections between gender, education, and democracy.

About the author

Kristina R. Llewellyn is associate professor of social development studies at Renison University College, University of Waterloo and author of Democracy’s Angels: The Work of Women Teachers.

Kristina R. Llewellyn's profile page

Editorial Reviews

“This book illustrates beautifully the paradox of a school system (indeed a nation) that was intent on producing ideal ‘democratic’ citizens for a modern – though abstractly defined – democratic state while simultaneously denying women the full rights of the imagined democracy.” Helen Raptis, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Victoria

"Llewellyn is to be congratulated on this remarkable study – one which opens up new vistas for understanding the circumstances in which female teachers worked during the immediate post-war decades, and the ways in which they served, and resisted, the inte

"Democracy’s Angels provides a fascinating insight into Canadian women teachers’ lives in a period not that well-trod by historians. Recommended reading for history students and teachers, those working on school reform and public policy in Canada, and on