Ella Prisco This essay is part of a 2-part series. See the other entry here. “They have borne the lonely hours with fortitude,” stated the Winnipeg Citizen in its coverage of scabbing women during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.[1] Indeed they had, taking up positions as telephone switchboard operators and waitresses in response to the nearly thirty thousand workers… Read more »
Ella Prisco This essay is part of a 2-part series. The second post will be published next week. Depending on who you asked, Winnipeg on May 15, 1919 was either a city in chaos or on the precipice of a brave new world. It was the first day of the Winnipeg General Strike, the culmination of weeks of tension between… Read more »
By Sean Graham This week I talk with Peggy Nash, one of the co-authors of Women United: Stories of Women’s Struggles for Equality in the Canadian Auto Workers Union. We discuss women’s contributions to the union in its early years, how negotiating priorities were shaped, and the Second World War’s influence on the labour movement. We also chat about the… Read more »
By Sean Graham As part of our series with the 2025 Shannon Lecture Series, I talk with Sarah Hogenbirk, who will deliver the opening lecture on Monday entitled ‘Fighting for Their Place and Recognition: Canadian Servicewomen and Women Veterans in Post-Second World War Canada. The lecture will serve as a launch for Cold War Workers: Labour, Family, and Community in… Read more »
https://media.rss.com/whatsoldisnews/2024_11_14_04_32_33_9449a5a6-7113-41c0-84e5-ef651f1715d8.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThis week I’m joined by Ian Kennedy, author of Ice in their Veins: Women’s Relentless Pursuit of the Puck. We talk about the challenge of finding sources for early women’s hockey, the sport’s development in the first half of the 20th century, and some of the challenges faced by women’s hockey pioneers. We then… Read more »
https://media.rss.com/whatsoldisnews/2024_10_16_04_11_19_e64b655c-ea72-4d8a-ba95-b2ba67e4284b.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham This week, I talk with Jennifer Clark, author of Producing Feminism: Television Work in the Age of Women’s Liberation. We discuss the role of women in the television in the 1970s, the ways in which women organized, and how societal changes were reflected in the industry. We also chat about the… Read more »
https://media.rss.com/whatsoldisnews/2024_09_04_07_17_35_b7af7f82-95d4-4e94-ba1a-377dffe802c9.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham This week, I talk with Marth Hanna, author of Anxious Days and Tearful Nights: Canadian War Wives During the First World War. We discuss Martha’s entry into the world of First World War letters, the challenge of tracking down letters from over 100 years ago, and how women on the front… Read more »
Sara Wilmshurst First off, I’d like to bless the Internet Archive for preserving human folly. The paper under review today has been scrubbed from its original home but lives on in infamy through the Wayback Machine. I am speaking of “On the Challenges of Dating and Marriage in the New Generations,” published under the name of Benyamin Gohjogh. It made… Read more »
Julia Stanski I discovered Lillian Rose Adkins on September 27, 2023. Although I hadn’t known her name, I’d been searching for this woman for at least five years. Others had been looking for much longer. She’s been dead for more than half a century, but Lillian might be the key to a representational puzzle that has obscured her—and women like… Read more »
Kathryn Hughes In 1989, the popular Canadian women’s health magazine Healthsharing published an article entitled “Shots in the Dark: The Risk of Infant Vaccination”. Echoing the anti-vaccine movement of this period (the title borrows from the 1985 influential anti-vaccine text DTP: A Shot in the Dark), the article discussed the risk of the DPT-P vaccine, quoted personal stories from mothers… Read more »
