Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

Joseph, Jolin

VOLUME 31,  NUMBERS 1,2 139
though this seemed to be an import-
ant theme for students, there is no 
discussion of the ways in which stu-
dents engage with feminism in the 
context of attending a women’s only 
academic institution. The terms 
“feminism” and “feminist” continue 
to be contested and have a multi-
plicity of meanings globally. Thus, 
understanding what is evoked for 
students through their use of these 
terms would be valuable in making 
connections between women’s col-
leges and universities, student expe-
riences, and discourses of feminism. 
Additionally, although Renn 
mentions briefly that some students 
interviewed comment on the impor-
tance of race, class, caste, and reli-
gious differences in structuring their 
experiences at women’s colleges and 
universities, it is not taken up as a 
key topic of concern, perhaps due to 
the wide scope of the research agen-
da. Renn does acknowledge this in 
the text using Yuval-Davis’ (2011) 
work on intersectional analyses and 
with a brief discussion of the impact 
of class positions in educational in-
stitutions in her conclusion. She 
also concedes that future studies 
could explore this in more detail, 
but further exploration throughout 
the course of the entire book would 
help to situate the roles of women’s 
colleges and universities in a more 
nuanced manner. 
As Renn has taken up the very 
ambitious task of investigating 
thirteen institutions on the topic 
of women’s colleges and universi-
ties, there are numerous key points 
raised, but due to the broad scope 
of the research, some gaps are pres-
ent. Renn’s work does however 
point to the continued importance 
of women’s only academic spaces 
in a cross-cultural analysis and of-
fers useful data for those interested 
in higher education and women’s 
studies globally. 
fully makes the claim of the impor-
tance of women’s colleges and uni-
versities, as well as the complexities 
and contradictions that emerge in 
these spaces. First, she argues that 
these spaces provide access to wom-
en who may not otherwise have a 
chance to attend school and also 
provide financial and academic ac-
cess to certain types of education, 
for example in fields not typically 
dominated by women, such as sci-
ence, technology, engineering, and 
mathematics. Secondly, women’s 
colleges and universities provide 
welcoming campus climates where 
students are taken seriously by their 
teachers, potentially have more 
space to speak up, and are not mi-
norities in traditionally male-domi-
nated disciplines. In the third role, 
these spaces provide students with 
more opportunities for leadership 
on campus in student governments, 
publications, sports, and public ser-
vices in ways that some women may 
not have access to in co-educational 
institutions. Renn also argues that 
women’s colleges and universities 
make intellectual, cultural, and 
activist contributions to women’s 
movements, which contribute to 
women’s empowerment global-
ly. Her final theme of symbolism 
and paradox identifies the ways in 
which these spaces are both pro-
gressive and conservative. For ex-
ample, while a university education 
for women may be perceived as pro-
gressive, it can also reinscribe nor-
mative gender ideologies as some 
respondents note that educated 
women are seen as better wives and 
mothers. Additionally, institutions 
may espouse feminist principles, 
but still operate within masculinist 
educational systems. 
One of the striking features of the 
commentary provided by students 
in the text was the repeated use of 
the words “feminism” or “feminist” 
in their discussions. However, al-
ENGENDERING 
TRANSNATIONAL 
VOICES: STUDIES IN 
FAMILY, WORK AND 
IDENTITY
Guida Man and Rina Cohen, Eds.
Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University 
Press, 2015
reviewed by jolin joseph
Sustained and stretched across time 
and geographies, transnational fam-
ilies lie at the heart of the migration 
project. Engendering Transnational 
Voices is a welcome addition to this 
body of work that takes a nuanced 
look at the transnationally lived lives 
of women, youth and the elderly 
through a feminist intersectional 
optic. Such a perspective allows for 
careful consideration of networks, 
discourses, social spaces, and circuits 
of care. In mapping distinct config-
urations of transnational existence, 
the collection expands current 
deployments of transnationalism to 
consider the complex socio-spatiality 
of migrant experience. 
The introductory chapter charts 
the expansive terrain of transna-
tional migration literature, point-
ing to the mutually productive rela-
tionship between gender, migration 
and other axes of power. The book 
is organized along four interre-
lated thematics, theoretically and 
empirically traversing questions of 
identity, power, and processes of 
globalization, migration, and mar-
ginalization that coalesce to differ-
entially impact transmigrants. The 
Trina De Souza is a Ph.D. student in 
York University’s graduate program in 
Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies. 
Her research interests include feminism 
and Women’s Studies in higher educa-
tion, and arts-based pedagogy.  
CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME140
first section follows the (re)config-
uration of transnational family life 
via home and host states’ influ-
ence at the familial scale. Through 
excerpts from broader studies on 
twice-migrated South Asian skilled 
migrants and professional Chinese 
immigrant women respectively, Das 
Gupta and Man examine migration 
to Canada as marked by a fraught 
history of discriminatory practices 
that mediate migrants’ labour mar-
ket position, resulting in dramatic 
deskilling and downward mobility. 
Hari and Mandel et al. further un-
pack frameworks that circumscribe 
migrant lives, situating senior mi-
gration and co-residence as twin 
conduits of intergenerational care 
and financial transfers. Given the 
structural inequalities and system-
ic racism in the Canadian context, 
families mobilize transnational tac-
tics of split families, parenting from 
afar, networks and/or intergener-
ational care arrangements to meet 
productive and reproductive goals. 
The subsequent section consid-
ers multidirectional, reciprocal and 
asymmetric circulations of care la-
bour, demonstrating how a reced-
ing welfare state offloads costs of 
child and elder care onto individ-
uals and households, particularly 
women. In tracing the transnation-
al trajectories of Filipina migrant 
women, Francisco highlights the 
ways that transnational families 
adapt, through redistribution of 
care provisions and incorporation 
of kin networks. Elabor-Idemudia 
discusses how gendered-racialized 
ideologies script institutional pro-
cesses that produce migrants’ sub-
ordinate status while concomitantly 
benefiting from the developmental 
impact of remittances. Highlight-
ing the intricacies of caring transna-
tionally, Brigham investigates mul-
tiple modes through which migrant 
mothers negotiate identities, roles 
and social spaces, as Cohen presents 
dynamic strategies of ‘cybermoth-
ering’ and surrogates that support 
geographically-split families in re-
taining their sense of collectivity 
and kinship. While I would have 
welcomed more detailed engage-
ment with theoretical distinctions 
between care work, social repro-
duction, and affective labour, the 
authors’ attention to complex trans-
national linkages is notable.
Questions of cultural identity and 
production in diasporic spaces ani-
mate the concerns of section three. 
Taylor and James recount the ex-
periences of 1.5 and 2nd generation 
migrant university students whose 
ethnic identities and cultural con-
texts inflect their future aspirations 
and career choices. Corresponding-
ly, Samuel foregrounds the function 
of familial moorings and religious 
ties in facilitating collective cultural 
(dis)identification. Coupled with a 
call to move beyond the conceptual 
limits of transnationalism, Li’s case 
study of the Asian Canadian move-
ments deftly navigates the construc-
tion of hyphenated identity cate-
gories through grassroot political 
engagements and activism.
The final section directs our at-
tention towards critiques of hege-
monic discourses and contested 
transnational social spaces. Kim 
posits shifting transnationalism 
among South Korean communi-
ties as contingent on evolving gen-
der ideologies, while Park’s incisive 
critique of the Canadian refugee 
determination system points to the 
interaction of gender and age with 
racial discourses in the designation 
of victimhood and criminality. The 
concluding chapters grapple with 
Bourdieusian concepts of habi-
tus, fields, and the development 
of transnational habitus, capturing 
the divergent experiences of specific 
migrant groups. Through simul-
taneous engagement with agency/
structure and theory/praxis the 
compilation remains attentive to 
the daily (dis)locations emanating 
from transnational mobility.
Among the key strengths of the 
collection is its wide appeal, given 
the breadth of work it assembles. 
Diverse vignettes provide several 
entry points into the site of gen-
dered migration, allowing us to see 
transnational processes unfold in 
global-local settings. These intimate 
insights carry imprints of transna-
tional lives and journeys, signaling 
shifts towards inclusive social policy 
and equitable outcomes. While the 
book is an important contribution, 
its role in advancing the field of 
gender and migration is somewhat 
limited by its specificity of scope 
and lack of unified policy objective. 
In curating works with different 
emphases, methodologies, and lev-
els of analysis, the volume elides 
an overarching conceptual thread. 
Furthermore, despite its objective 
to amplify how transnationalism 
reframes socio-economic relations 
across different transnational spac-
es, much of the content, contrib-
utors, and coverage of the text re-
main Canada-centric. Nevertheless, 
the anthology presents a compelling 
resource for thinking through gen-
dered transnational migration and 
its discontents.


Engendering Transnational Voices: Studies in Family, Work and Identity

Comment retrouver son chemin vers le refuge de gaia? En adoptant les enseignements de l’antique déesse nous revenons à notre point de départ. Plusieurs sources alimentent l’ écoféminisme , ‘’l’amour de la Terre’’qui nous entraîne vers l’équilibre, au tout et à la reconnexion avec la Terre, notre Mère

Joy Leah, Ronnie

Earth Love: Finding Our Way Back Home

Drummond, Robert

VOLUME 31,  NUMBERS 1,2 141
FEMOCRATIC 
ADMINISTRATION: 
GENDER, 
GOVERNANCE, AND 
DEMOCRACY IN 
ONTARIO
Tammy Findlay
Toronto: University of Toronto 
Press, 2015
reviewed by robert 
drummond
This work could be described simply 
as a study of the Ontario Women’s 
Directorate from 1985 to 2000. 
However that description would not 
do justice to the scope of Professor 
Findlay’s inquiry and argument. Her 
broader aim is to assess the capacity 
of feminist theory (and feminist ac-
tivism) to promote democracy (and 
an appreciation of the role gender 
plays in policy) within the ranks 
of a provincial public bureaucracy. 
Her assessment pays particular at-
tention to the apparently different 
gender regimes that characterized 
the Peterson and Rae governments 
on the one hand and the Harris 
government on the other, and while 
she acknowledges the difference 
between them, she points as well to 
their similar failure to fully embrace 
democracy and feminism. She rec-
ognizes the debates within feminist 
circles about the extent to which the 
state can ever be expected to alter the 
gendered power structure of society, 
but she throws her lot in with the 
“femocrats” or “state feminists” who 
see an opportunity (not to say a duty) 
to remake the state apparatus to 
produce more democratic and more 
gender-sensitive policy. In that sense, 
while the analysis is highly critical, 
it is not pessimistic and concludes 
with a prescription for improvement.
This is a very fine piece of schol-
arship, both theoretically and 
empirically. Some readers will no 
doubt be mildly irritated (as I was) 
by the terminology commonly em-
ployed in critical theory and femi-
nist political economy, but I trust 
they will acknowledge (as I do) that 
the problem is our own and not 
that of the author. Indeed Profes-
sor Findlay wields the theory with 
considerable subtlety and sophisti-
cation, and her empirical analysis 
admirably displays an open mind.
In the prescriptive portion of the 
work however, Professor Findlay has 
taken on a formidable task, and it is 
there that I find an opportunity for 
more critical comment. She seeks 
to encourage greater participation 
by citizens in the making of pub-
lic policy and, by extension, a more 
accurately diverse expression of the 
public will. The practical means 
by which this encouragement is to 
take place are however undoubtedly 
contentious, even within the ranks 
of those who share her aims.
She argues the necessity of “state 
feminists”—bureaucrats with fem-
inist ideals—to act as advocates 
within the public service, account-
able not to the government of the 
day but to the public whom they 
and the government purportedly 
serve. The neutrality valued in a 
Weberian model of bureaucracy 
she (perhaps realistically) describes 
as illusory, but also as antithetic to 
substantive democracy. Some in-
terests appear already to have their 
internal advocates; those Professor 
Findlay prefers mainly do not. I 
suspect she and I prefer many of the 
same groups, but I don’t know that 
I could persuade some of my more 
conservative colleagues that internal 
advocacy for my preferred interests 
is democratic while advocacy for 
theirs is not.
Some of her other prescriptions 
are, to my mind, more sensible. 
Reducing hierarchy in the public 
service in favour of a spokes-in-the-
wheel model of collaborative and 
consultative decision-making would 
be a long overdue recognition of the 
interconnectedness of policy fields, 
as well of the “inter-sectionality” 
that characterizes citizen clients. 
Giving better access to marginalized 
groups can only help to make poli-
cy more sensitive to citizen diversity 
and therefore more effective in the 
long run. However, there is a degree 
to which the models of citizen par-
ticipation Professor Findlay seems 
to favour are optimistic about the 
time and energy most people are 
prepared to devote to political ac-
tion. Moreover they underestimate 
the degree to which people may 
need to be organized in groups with 
a tendency to oligarchy. We can 
and should mitigate that tendency, 
but it would be naïve to ignore it. 
Finally, Professor Findlay expresses 
the belief, widespread among dem-
ocratic reformers, that more respect 
must be paid to the lived experience 
of citizens, in contrast to the defer-
ence now paid to the views of “ex-
perts.” Who could disagree with the 
need to acknowledge that people 
closest to a problem may best know 
its shape and weight? But surely 
Professor Tammy Findlay, Ph.D., is 
not asserting that expertise is with-
out value?
University Professor Emeritus of Po-
litical Science and Public Policy and 
Administration, Robert Drummond 
taught at York University for 42 
years; former Dean of Arts at York 
2001-2009.
Jolin Joseph is a Ph.D. candidate and 
Vanier Scholar in Gender, Feminist 
and Women’s Studies at York Uni-
versity. She is interested in questions 
of (il)legality, precarity, and gendered 
migration policy in South and West 
Asia. Her dissertation takes a feminist 
political economy perspective on Indian 
migration to Saudi Arabia.


Femocratic Administration: Gender, Governance, and Democracy in Ontario

Tabata, Heidi

102 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
CWS/cf
Essential Reading 
for Feminists Everywhere
www.cwscf.ca
HEIDI TABATA
Marie Curie at the Bank
Oh sweetheart
you said
chucking me under the chin
you need to understand
that’s how money works
so I stacked up all my money in the world
carefully sorted into denominations
and waited
to see how money worked
as it turns out, money
like most metal, is a conductor
it doesn’t actually do any work
but transmits an odourless, colourless cold
soul death of its handlers
in a specific metallic whisper
you want some? Jump then.
Oh you’re hungry?
jump higher.
You’re powerless, you say?
open your legs
see how powerful you are?
Now … you hungry people
go fuck the powerless
… Christ, you people are barbarians
Oh sweetheart
please don’t talk to me anymore
about how money works
I fear that
I do not have the warmth
To melt
the frozen blood in your veins
the frozen tears on our cheeks
the frozen future in my womb
I fear that I have been
contaminated
by contact
with your stories
about how money works.
Heidi Tabata is a traveller and student of life, love, law, and philosophy. 
Sometimes she writes incoherently about these things.


English

Marie Curie at the Bank

Ferris, Shawna

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME142
not being the “socially acceptable” 
prostitute. In part, this is what irks 
those who veil their feelings of mor-
al superiority in a desire to speak for 
those who cannot speak for them-
selves. Ferris does not speak over or 
for sex workers. Rather she includes 
and discusses real-life experiences. 
The book discusses Canadian laws 
surrounding the buying and selling 
of sex and how this affects sex work-
ers—not as victims or as statistics, 
but as individuals with varying lives 
and experiences.
Ferris provides an in depth 
analysis of what have come to be 
known as urban cleanup projects 
in major cities across Canada. The 
sanitization comes in the form of 
eliminating or at least diminishing 
prostitution and street sex work. 
The author delves into the key el-
ements of understanding sex work 
as legitimate work and humanizing 
the individuals behind it. The au-
thor juxtaposes moral and cultural 
attitudes around sex work and the 
socio-economic realities of margin-
alized groups living in Canada.
The timeline regarding Canadian 
legislation that is provided, as an 
appendix to the text, is very infor-
mative and a quick reference guide 
for students and instructors. This 
helps to and encourages further re-
In a recent meeting of Amnesty Inter-
national in Dublin, Ireland, it has been 
decided that the selling and buying of 
sex should be decriminalized. Certain-
ly a very contentious decision indeed, 
but more importantly, the question 
must be: who will benefit from this 
proposed legislation? While many 
countries around the world, including 
Canada, are steering towards or have 
already adopted the Nordic Model, 
which looks to decriminalize the sell-
ing of sex and rather goes after those 
who purchase or otherwise exploit 
sex workers, Amnesty International 
has taken a rather provocative stance. 
As is aptly discussed in Ferris’ book, 
the Nordic Model and Canadian 
laws in general, are paternalistic and 
only create an environment in which 
it is at times even more dangerous 
for a sex worker to carry out her/his 
employment.
Shawna Ferris begins her book 
Street Sex Work and Canadian Cit-
ies: Resisting a Dangerous Order 
with an introduction that perfectly 
describes the climate around dis-
cussions of sex work. The forward 
is written by Amy Lebovitch who 
says: “I live in a world that either 
victimizes or vilifies me.” Often the 
research that is conducted on sex 
work and sex workers erases the fact 
that there are real people behind 
the data and that there is no uni-
versal experience. There is no such 
thing as a valid or invalid reason 
for selling sex, just as there should 
not be voices that are silenced for 
search. In addition to this, it would 
be wonderful to see an appendix 
of sorts that provides current orga-
nizations with web links in order 
to further one’s research or even 
provide safe-space information for 
those who want it. Maggie’s (Toron-
to Sex Workers Action Project), for 
example, has a great site that is eas-
ily accessible and provides valuable 
resources. The author does dedicate 
an entire section to resistance and 
cyber communities in “Technol-
ogies of Resistance: Canadian Sex 
Worker Activism Online,” but for 
students, a condensed version with 
actual urls would be even better.
I am very happy to read Ferris’ 
engagement with the colonial as-
pects of sex work and the social 
realities of missing and murdered 
Aboriginal women. Section 4 of the 
book, “Agency and Aboriginality,” 
deconstructs the intersected realities 
of Aboriginal women to provide the 
reader with a more complex under-
standing of the issues involved and 
what activism needs to look like. 
The Canadian content of the 
book makes this an excellent text 
for university students and research-
ers alike. This is an excellent com-
panion book for upper year Wom-
en’s and Gender Studies, Sociology 
and even Labour Studies courses. 
Many texts are dedicated to global 
sex work and trafficking, but few 
deal with Canadian content the 
way that Ferris does. I highly rec-
ommend her book for students and 
instructors who are new to the topic 
as well as to the seasoned academic 
who desires a street-smart analytical 
perspective on the realities of street 
sex work in Canada.
Elizabeth D’Angelo is a doctoral 
candidate at York University in the 
department of English Literature. She 
has worked in the Centre for Women’s 
and Gender Studies at Brock University 
for several years.
STREET SEX WORK 
AND CANADIAN 
CITIES: RESISTING A 
DANGEROUS ORDER
Shawna Ferris
Edmonton: University of Alberta 
Press, 2015
reviewed by elizabeth 
d’angelo


Street Sex Work and Canadian Cities: Resisting a Dangerous Order

Langevin, Donna

Dinah Nuthead

Kadar, Marlene

128 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME
Squared by how many times a handkerchief white 
for a man’s pocket, I guess
But how does it migrate from the place it started 
looking like this, a square
I only wondered afterwards after the laundry
Lucky I did not see a man’s square handkerchief 
in the mounds of wounded white
Tossed just like that, with towels, socks, 
underpants, undershirts, jeans.
No, I just bent at the knees, straight back, lifted 
the whites
And with speed anew or I threw the laundry into 
the front loader.
The water pulsed through the hose and the drum 
clicked and clacked, whooshed and
swooshed, pretty things scampering this way, 
and that, rolling over like puppies with itchy
tummies the other way. But not me, I didn’t notice 
much, or care then.
But then in a red fire of burned skin I saw the 
square and knew then it had been left for me,
A gift,
Folded,
Because I would, of course, expect a good woman 
to unfold the handkerchief, so that it could be
properly washed, made clean again.
But I was meant to unfold it before the load was 
consecrated. So it would be washed equally in
all its parts, and more easily ironed, maybe with 
a flourish, and the whole thing would have
worked much better, wouldn’t it?
Would it look like this then?
MARLENE KADAR
Clean Poem
A near perfect square like that in there, wet now 
but holding its perfect shape.
I removed the laundry from the front loader and 
wanted to just pick it up and heave it with all my
strength into the dryer,
But instead I hesitated.
Who cares really, who really cares, I have 
pretended that I care
And you would be able to scrunch it up to wipe 
your brow or blow your nose, and then maybe
fold it up so it fits like a square in your sleek hip 
pocket. No one would ever know how I had not
unfolded it, nor how it wasn’t really sanitary, 
after all. Even though I did the whole load of
laundry, bending with a straight back only.
Marlene Kadar is a Toronto writer, and Professor in 
Humanities and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies 
at York University.


Clean Poem

Mintz, Judith

VOLUME 31,  NUMBERS 1,2 147
NOT THE WHOLE 
STORY: CHALLENGING 
THE SINGLE MOTHER 
NARRATIVE
Lea Caragata and Judit Alcade, Eds.
Waterloo, on: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 
2014
reviewed by judith mintz
Not the Whole Story: Challenging 
the Single Mother Narrative offers 
its readers an intensive exploration 
into the gendered discrimination 
that affects the lives of lone mothers 
every day. As a single parent, I reso-
nate with the notion of developing 
orphans hired in various states of 
pornographic (though traditional) 
undress or chilling anonymity to 
say “the morality of these wom-
an is compromised; they need to 
be saved by an altruistic European 
Christian hand.” Early Hollywood 
films continue this missionary 
trend in which Western men from 
Douglas Fairbanks to Bing Crosby 
liberate sensual but suppressed Ori-
ental women.
With insight, humour, and a bal-
anced approach, Amer guides us 
through the victimization of Mus-
lims that occurred after 9/11 and 
is still going on, a fear mongering 
that places terrorist explosives un-
der every innocent chador, burqua, 
niquab or abaya. She navigates us 
through ramifications of France’s 
2004 law that “banned all osten-
tatious religious signs from French 
public schools” (to say nothing of 
similar prohibitions in our own 
province of Quebec).
The book’s visuals are extremely 
revealing, from cartoons in which a 
small child cannot find his mother 
amidst many covered women, to 
fifa’s 2012 lifting of the ban on hi-
jab resulting in an ebullient photo 
depicting the scarfed, enthusiastic 
members of the Carolina Cyclones 
soccer team. 
Amer’s final chapters on “Veil-
ing Through the Arts”—including 
stand-up comedy and hip-hop—are 
spectacular. From young Muslim 
American poets with lines like: “No 
I’m not bald under the scarf…No I 
would not like to defect/I’m already 
American…Yes I carry explosives/ 
They’re called words/And if you 
don’t get up/Off your assumptions,/ 
They’re going to blow you away,” to 
Self-Portrait or the Virgin Mary in 
which the ambivalent woman in 
white mysteriously raises far more 
questions than she answers. 
Then there is the stunning per-
formance video, Les Illuminés 
“which takes us literally inside the 
burqa to film what a woman’s eyes 
see from behind the [crocheted] 
face veil that masks [them].” The 
covered woman sees external reali-
ty—often hostile, when people turn 
to stare—through a cross-hatching 
as sinister as prison bars. At the 
same time though, the “faceless, 
silenced” Muslim woman is the 
director of this scene, temporarily 
transforming the veil of oppression 
into one of power.
Each chapter begins with sharply 
pertinent quotes. Here is the wife of 
Turkey’s president setting the tone 
for “Politics and Sociocultural Prac-
tices of Veiling”: “My scarf covers 
my head not my brain.” 
A simple necessary statement, 
confirming the importance of this 
book.
Patricia Keeney is an award-winning 
poet, novelist and cultural critic who 
is translated and published interna-
tionally. Her newest novel One Man 
Dancing (Inanna Publications) and 
her latest poetry collection Orpheus 
In Our World (NeoPoiesis Press) were 
both published in 2016. Pat’s website 
can be found at www.wapitiwords.ca 
more vocabulary with which to 
articulate the intersecting factors 
including race, poverty, age, and 
ability, that make single mothers’ lives 
so difficult. Started as a longitudinal 
social research project titled, “Lone 
Mothers: Building Social Inclusion” 
by the book’s editors, Lea Caragata 
and Judit Alcade, Not the Whole 
Story gives voice to the realities of 
single mothers whose struggles with 
education, alcoholism, sexual and 
domestic violences, and the social 
assistance system demand our atten-
tion. In spite of the women’s horrific 
experiences that this book describes, 
it offers insight to multiple readers, 
from academics and policy makers, to 
students and general public through 
the hope and growth inherent in its 
pages. 
Not the Whole Story opens with 
a compelling introduction that ex-
plains the Lone Mothers project 
from which the 16 stories in the 
book developed. With the intent 
to bring critical examination to the 
subject position of single mothers in 
Canada, this five-year sshrc-fund-
ed project, began in 2004 as a col-
lective project with single mothers 
to challenge public discourse about 
them. The strongest part of the 
book is this introduction, which 
offers a social policy and historical 
context for the stories (Evans 2007; 
Little, 1998; Vosko 2002). The in-
troduction also briefly explains the 
ways in which the methodology in-
forms the structure of the book, and 
the issues that shape poverty, single 
motherhood, and social status. The 
evolution of the single mothers tell-
ing their stories is fascinatingly in-
formed by Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy of 
the Oppressed (1970). Concomitant 
with feminist participatory action 
research, the Lone Mothers Project 
gives voice to marginalized women 
who, through a guided group pro-
cess, gain insights into their own 
situations and thus free themselves 


Not the Whole Story: Challenging the Single Mother Narrative

Lloyd, Christina

VOLUME 31, NUMBERS 1,2 105
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Economies, Theories of Subsistence, 
and Women: Exploring the Social 
Economy Model for Indigenous 
Governance.” American Indian 
Quarterly 35.2 (Spring 2011): 
215-240. Print. 
Mies, Maria and Veronika Benholdt-
Thomson. The Subsi s tence 
Perspective: Beyond the Globalized 
Economy. New York: Zed Books, 
2000. Print. 
is only because of the co-existence 
of various elements of nature that 
human life arose and has been sus-
tained for so long. It is this common 
characteristic of nurturing that weaves 
an important and critical bond be-
tween nature and women, which is 
cemented by the very real relationship 
of caring that women have had with 
the natural world, both in achieving 
sustenance from nature’s bounty, as 
well as caring for nature to ensure 
she can continue to do the same for 
all people. 
At the first world conference on 
women in 1975, held in Mexico City, 
the “women and environment” issue 
was brought into public conscious-
ness by the physicist Vandana Shiva, 
now a global environment leader (see 
also Schultz et al.). She reported the 
struggle of the Chipko Movement in 
the Himalayan region of India, where 
Chipko village women embraced 
the trees to protect them against 
threats of deforestation. It is one of 
the oldest environmental protests 
by women against government and 
business joint policies. Various other 
movements such as the Women, 
Environment and Development; 
Alliance for the Future; and Devel-
opment Alternatives with Women 
for a New Era (dawn) came up in 
the late 1990s. 
It is evident that women are major 
contributors, if not the majority stake-
holders, and they share equal burden 
in this regard. Moreover, women have 
proven to be effective instruments 
in bringing reform and adopting 
ecological practices on a large scale. 
Their stake in environment and de-
velopment cannot be ignored.
Laavanya Kaushik is currently working 
as a Legal Counsellor at the Delhi Com-
mission for Women, a statutory body 
mandated to investigate and examine 
all matters relating to safeguards pro-
vided for women under the constitution 
of India and other relevant laws. She 
is also completing her undergraduate 
degree, with double major in Arts and 
Law. For the past five years, she has 
worked with the ngo, Folks and Us 
Foundation. 
Schultz, Irmgard, et al. “Research 
on Gender, the Environment and 
Sustainable Development. Studies 
on Gender Impact Assessment of the 
Programmes of the 5th Framework 
Programme for  Research , 
Technological Development 
and Demonstration.” Frankfurt 
am Main: Institut für sozial-
ökologische, 2001. Web. 
United Nations Economic and 
Social Council, Commission on 
the Status of Women. The Em-
powerment of Rural Women and 
their Role in Poverty and Hunger 
Eradication, Development and 
Current Challenges. Report of 
the Secretary-General, 2012. E/
CN.6/2012/3. Web.
World Bank. The Global Monitoring 
Report 2012: Food Prices, Nutrition, 
and the Millennium Development 
Goals. 2012. Web.
United Nations. Charter of the 
United Nations and Statute of 
the International Court of Justice, 
1945. Web.
CHRISTINA LLOYD
ON THE CHAMPS ELYSEES
she tells me that three doctors peered in
to declare her hymen intact, that church
edict demanded such proof.
I imagine Agnes’ daggered throat,
Agatha’s severed breasts and this woman
splayed, her faith tested clinically.
In the Louvre I join the processional of tourists
gawking at Murillo’s numb-faced Madonnas,
Fra Angelico’s shocking pinks.
Christina Lloyd holds an ma in Hispanic languages and literature from 
U.C. Berkeley and an ma in creative writing from Lancaster University. In 
addition to two chapbooks, her work appears in various journals, including, 
The North and Meniscus. She is currently working on a Ph.D. in creative 
writing through Lancaster Univeristy.


On the Champs Elysees

Weston, Joanna M.

VOLUME 31, NUMBERS 1,2 43
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Change (ipcc). “Climate Change 
2007: Working Group II: Impacts, 
Adaptation and Vulnerability.” 
N.d. Web.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
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Report (ar5).” November 2014. 
Web.
Isla, Ana. The “Greening” of Costa 
Rica: Women, Peasants, Indigenous 
People, and the Remaking of Nature. 
Toronto: University of Toronto 
Press, 2015. Print.
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on Early Forest Carbon Offset 
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Böll Foundation, December 
2014a. Web.
Kill, Jutta. “redd: Una coleccion 
de conflictos, contradicciones y 
mentiras.” Montevideo, Uruguay: 
World Rainforest Movement, 4 
December 2014b. Web.
Kill, Jutta and Giulia Franchi. “Rio 
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Madagascar: Double Landgrab in 
the Name of Biodiversity?” A Field 
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March 2016. Web.
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mate in Response to Amazon 
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26 (2013): 9115-9136. Web.
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Ourselves on 2-Degree Global 
Warming Limit: Experts.” nbc 
News, 28 Nov. 2014. Web.
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Is Growing. 16 October 2009. Web. 
Accessed 15 October 2015.
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Environment And Sustainable 
Development. New York: Oxford 
University Press, 1993. Print.
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Nature, Marx and the Postmodern. 
New York: Zed Books, 1997. Print. 
Salleh, A. “Global Alternatives 
and the Meta-industrial Class.” 
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Hunters: On the Trail of the 
Climate’s Hottest Commodity.” 
Produced by Andres Cediel & co-
produced by Daniela Broitman. 
Video. 11 May 2010. Web.
Schifter, J. Viejos Verdes en el Paraiso: 
Turismo Sexual en Costa Rica. 
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Universidad Estatal a Distancia, 
2007. Print.
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Convention on Climate Change 
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(ji) [The Kyoto Protocol]. 2005. 
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Different Worldview is Possible. 
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Education, 2007. 1-38. Print.
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Muerte! Reflexiones para una Teoria 
Critica del Patriarcado. Mexico. 
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por los Bosques Tropical]. “El 
PSA convertido en permiso de 
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198 (2014). Web.
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“Disputed Territory: The Green 
Economy Versus Community-
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December 2012. Web.
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JOANNA M. WESTON
To My Daughters
the daughters that I have
mix sons with tea and beer
and fill tall cups
with bridal champagne
these are the girls
I dreamed into life
with wisteria     roses
and wild sunflowers
they sprang out of books
singing contemporary jazz
juggling baskets of muffins
tennis balls and cookies
these precious girls
painted in blue silk
tied with white ribbons
laugh from my heart frame
Joanna M. Weston is married with 
one cat, multiple spiders, a herd of 
deer, and two derelict hen houses. 
Her most recent poetry collection, 
A Bedroom of Searchlights, was 
published in spring 2016 by Inanna 
Publications.


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