Countercurrents: Women's Movements in Postwar Montreal

by Amanda Ricci

In the decades following the Second World War, women from all walks of life became increasingly frustrated by the world around them. Drawing on long-standing political traditions, these women bound together to revolutionize social norms and contest gender inequality. In Montreal, women activists inspired by Red Power, Black Power, and Quebec liberation, among other social movements, mounted a multifront campaign against social injustice.

Countercurrents looks beyond the defining waves metaphor to write a new history of feminism that incorporates parallel social movements into the overarching narrative of the women’s movement. Case studies compare and reflect on the histories of the Quebec Native Women’s Association, the Congress of Black Women, the Front de libération des femmes du Québec, various Haitian women’s organizations, and the Collectif des femmes immigrantes du Québec and the political work they did. Bringing to light previously overlooked archival and oral sources, Amanda Ricci introduces a new cast of characters to the history of feminism in Quebec. The book presents a unique portrait of the resurgence of feminist activism, demonstrating its deep roots in Indigenous and Black communities, its transnational scope, and its wide-ranging inspirations and preoccupations.

Advancing cross‐cultural perspectives on women’s movements, Countercurrents looks to the history of women’s activism in Montreal and finds new ways of defining feminist priorities and imagining feminist futures.

Genres: History

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 15, 2023

Reviews

[cam · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love this city and i love women, would be 5 stars if i didnt have to write 8 pages about it #wishmeluck

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I really liked this book. Ricci did a great job exploring the women's movements in Montreal in the postwar era. Specifically, I liked that she rejected the wave metaphor often used to describe the political organization of women in Canada, because it perpetuates the idea that feminism in Canada was purely for white middle-class women. This is just one of the many things I liked about this book in addition to Riccis's discussion on “narratives of exclusion”, “triple oppression” and intersectionality, “competing feminist nationalism”, and the highlighting of the role colonial ideologies played in this space. I would recommend this book to anyone in general, but especially to those who like learning about the nuances of feminism and the feminist movements that have been pushed out of the grander historical narrative.