History Post-confederation (1867-)
Regulating Girls and Women
Sexuality, Family, and the Law in Ontario, 1920-1960
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- Dec 2001
- Category
- Post-Confederation (1867-), Social History, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Gender Studies, Marriage & Family, Women's Studies, Sexual Abuse & Harassment
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780195416633
- Publish Date
- Apr 2001
- List Price
- $32.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781442656062
- Publish Date
- Dec 2001
- List Price
- $35.95
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Description
For people living in Ontario, as throughout Canada, the period from 1920 to 1960 was one of great change and turmoil – the roaring twenties the Great Depression, the upheaval of war, and the economic boom of the postwar years. One constant in society over those years, however, was the differential treatment that females and males received before the law, especially in regard to family matters and sexuality. A patriarchal justice system, increasingly under the influence of 'expert' opinion from social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other medial doctors, openly espoused a sexual double standard and sough to regulate the behaviour of girls and women 'for their own good'. Indeed, women in physically abusive relationships were at times advised by judges, probation officers, and social workers to 'go home and sleep with your husband' on the assumption that keeping him sexually sated would end the violence.
In this fascinating study of sexuality, family, and the law, historian Joan Sangster focuses on key issues that drew women into the courts, as plaintiffs and defendants: incest and sexual abuse, wife assault, prostitution, female delinquency, and the unique 'colonization of the soul' that Aboriginal women had to endure before the law. As Sangster writes: 'While history does not offer pat solutions to present dilemmas, it may stimulate some sobering second thoughts on current debates – by dissecting the changing definitions of criminality and the process by which law constituted gender, race, and class relations; by mounting a critique of past reform efforts; and, importantly, by suggesting how the law affected the lives of girls and women who came into conflict with it.'
About the author
Joan Sangster is a professor of women's studies and history at Trent University, where she also teaches at the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Native Studies. Her most recent books are Girl Trouble: Female 'Delinquency' in English Canada and Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada.
Other titles by
Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume XII
New Essays in Women's History
Demanding Equality
One Hundred Years of Canadian Feminism
The Violence of Work
New Essays in Canadian and US Labour History
One Hundred Years of Struggle
The History of Women and the Vote in Canada
The Iconic North
Cultural Constructions of Aboriginal Life in Postwar Canada
Through Feminist Eyes
Essays on Canadian Women’s History
Transforming Labour
Women and Work in Postwar Canada
Labouring Canada
Class, Gender, and Race in Canadian Working-Class History
Girl Trouble
Female Delinquency in English Canada
Regulating Girls and Women
Sexuality, Family, and the Law in Ontario, 1920-1960