Have Canadian women gained from their pursuit of legal remedies to social, political, economic, and cultural inequalities? Is law a fruitful avenue for such struggles? Using liberal feminist, postmodern, critical, race, and queer theory, these essays confront the anti-rights critiques of the legal Left regarding the use of law in general and the Charter in particular. Several chapters explicitly examine the strategic limits and possibilities of the substantive equality rights approaches pursued by LEAF (The Women's Legal Education and Action Fund). Others focus on legal strategies mobilized in discreet areas of law and public policy by foreign domestic workers and racialized women, lesbians, women seeking reproductive freedom, women in the childcare movement, and anti-violence advocates. Recognizing the diversity of women across class, citizenship, race and ethnicity, sexual identity, culture, and (dis)ability, this collection evaluates the efficacy of the wide range of legal and political strategies women have employed, particularly in this post-Charter era. Women's Legal Strategies in Canada is the most comprehensive account of these important issues and will surely become the standard work in the field.

Agnew delves into the public and private spheres of several distinct communities in order to expose the underlying inequalities within Canada's economic, social, legal, and political systems that frequently result in the denial of basic rights to migrant women.

Since 1980, the Canadian women's movement has been an active participant in consitutional politics and Charter litigation. This book, through its focus on the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), presents a compelling examination of how Canadian feminists became key actors in developing the constitutional doctrine of equality, and how they mobilized that doctrine to support the movement's policy agenda. The case of LEAF, an organization that has as its goal the use of Charter litigation to influence legal rules and public policy, provides rich ground for Christopher Manfredi's keen analysis of legal mobilization. In a multitude of areas such as abortion, pornography, sexual assault, family law, and gay and lesbian rights, LEAF has intervened before the Supreme Court to bring its understanding of equality to bear on legal policy development. This study offers a deft examination of LEAF's arguments and seeks to understand how they affected the Court's consideration of the issues. Perhaps most important, it also contemplates the long-term effects of the mobilization, and considers the social impact of the legal doctrine that has emerged from LEAF cases. A major contribution to law and society studies, Feminist Activism in the Supreme Court is unparalleled in its analysis of legal mobilization as an effective strategy for social movements. It will be widely read and welcomed by legal scholars, political scientists, lawyers, feminists, and activists.

This collection addresses the present and the future of the concept of intersectionality within socio-legal studies. Including contributions from a range of international scholars, this book interrogates what has become a key organizing concept across a range of disciplines, most particularly law, political theory, and cultural studies.

The field of Canadian Studies is a growing discipline, particularly in the United States. This introductory text offers a thorough and accessible approach to Canadian Studies through comparative analyses of Canada and the United States, their histories, geographies, political systems, economies, and cultures. Among the topics addressed are ways in which Canadian national development has been influenced by the U.S., the role of geography in shaping the country's evolution, and the persistent question of Canada's French-speaking minority, which has been an important and divisive issue since the 1500s. Canadian Studies in the New Millennium is an excellent introduction to Canadian Studies, with chapters written by leading scholars and educators in the field. At a time in which there is a growing mutual dependence between the U.S. and Canada for security, trade, and investment, this text is an ideal tool for understanding the close relationship between the two countries, their shared experiences, and their differing views. Canadian Studies in the New Millennium will be of significant value to students, educators, and practitioners.

This book explains when and why governments around the world take action to advance - or undermine - women's rights.

To explain how constitutions shape and are shaped by women's lives, the contributors examine constitutional cases pertaining to women in 12 countries, covering cases about reproductive, sexual, familial, socio-economic, and democratic rights, and focussing on women's claims to equality.

Jennifer Nedelsky claims that we must rethink our notion of autonomy, rejecting the usual vocabulary of control, boundaries and individual rights. If we understand that we are fundamentally in relation to others, she argues, we will recognize that we become autonomous with others.

Preface Acknowledgements 1. The Canadian Women's Movement Documents Marjorie Griffen Cohen 2. The Politics of the Body Documents Ruth Roach Pierson 3.The Mainstream Women's Movement and the Politics of Difference Documents Ruth Roach Pierson 4. Social Policy and Social Services Documents Marjorie Griffen Cohen 5. Women, Law, and the Justice System Documents Paula Bourne 6. Women, Culture, and Communications Philinda Masters Permissions Index

Feminism’s Fight explores and assesses feminist strategies to advance gender justice for women through Canadian federal policy over the past fifty years, from the 1970 Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women to the present. The authors evaluate changing government orientations through the 1990s and 2000s, revealing the negative impact on most women’s lives and the challenges for feminists. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated misogyny and related systemic inequalities. Yet it has also revived feminist mobilization and animated calls for a new and comprehensive equality agenda for Canada. Feminism’s Fight tells the crucial story of a transformation in how feminism has been treated by governments and asks how new ways of organizing and new alliances can advance a feminist agenda of social and economic equality.