Mennonite Women in Canada traces the complex social history and multiple identities of Canadian Mennonite women over 200 years. Marlene Epp explores women’s roles, as prescribed and as lived, within the contexts of immigration and settlement, household and family, church and organizational life, work and education, and in response to social trends and events. The combined histories of Mennonite women offer a rich and fascinating study of how women actively participate in ordering their lives within ethno-religious communities.

Marlene Epp teaches history and peace and conflict studies at Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo. She is the author of Women Without Men: Mennonite Refugees of the Second World War and co-editor with Franca Iacoveta and Frances Swyripa of Sisters or Strangers? Immigrant, Ethnic, and Racialized Women in Canadian History.

Marlene Epp's profile page

“Epp’s liberal use of moving personal stories and effective analysis illuminates the fascinating, painful, inspiring, and even contradictory lives of women who have negotiated, resented, modified, or openly resisted the patriarchal underpinnings of their ethno-religious group.”

Franca Iacovetta, University of Toronto, author of Gatekeepers: Reshaping Immigrant Lives in Cold War Canada

“This is an impressive book that breaks new ground in Mennonite history by demonstrating how women’s situations were so varied that the ideals of women’s behaviour did not always match the realities of women’s lived experiences.”

Rachel Waltner Goossen, Washburn University, author of Women Against the Good War: Conscientious Objection and Gender on the American Home Front, 194147