Seldom Pleasant

Defining Moments Canada (DMC) is excited to commemorate these pioneering women and the paths they forged towards equality, independence, and education for women in Seldom Pleasant: 150 Years of Pioneering Women’s Access to Education, Medicine, STEM and Beyond. This bilingual project will curate and present the experiences of women pioneers in Canada while exploring – through historical discussion and pedagogical resources – themes pervasive across diverse and intersecting perspectives. Seldom Pleasant presents a nuanced and thorough commemorative collection of content in honour of definitional women and their advocacy work, with a depth of historical analysis that is long overdue.

Anchored by two milestones of women’s history in Canada, Seldom Pleasant explores the parallel stories of women’s achievements in the fields of medicine and STEM, and the impact of accessible education on women’s lives in Canada. Our approach in this project draws a direct line between larger movements for women’s rights, and the lived experiences of increased access to education and careers for women in Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Seldom Pleasant explores the experiences of women who pioneered access into historically exclusive spaces and the impact of their stories on the larger population — both then and now — while considering the intersections of gender with other identity markers, such as race and economic status. Ultimately, Seldom Pleasant presents a diverse and engaging collection of historical and educational content snapshotting 150 years of the experience of being a woman within the institutions of Canadian society.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

1. Why were the experiences of Trout, Stowe, and Lockhart defining moments in women’s rights movements in their own time, and what impact did they have on the experiences of women going forward?
2. In what ways were the experiences of women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries impacted by the distribution of rights and privileges held by larger institutions and systems? How do they continue to be impacted?
3. How did women’s rights movements intersect with other movements for equal rights in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? How do they continue to intersect?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

• The experiences of women pioneers, such as Trout, Stowe, and Lockhart, signaled changes in how some women had access to and were recognized by institutions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• While Trout and Lockhart achieved institutional recognition and access, many other women (before, during, and after their time) were also pioneers in the spheres of education, medicine, and STEM, even though they did not receive the same recognition.
• The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a time of broader movements for women’s rights in social, legal, and political contexts (e.g. women’s suffrage).
• Only some women were included within and benefitted from broader movements for women’s rights and changes in access to rights and privileges at this time. Women’s rights movements sometimes but not always intersected with other movements for equal rights (e.g. race, economic status, sexuality).
• The historical experiences of women must be understood in the context of the contemporary expectations imposed upon them by larger social movements, organizations, and traditions.
• Women’s increasingly active participation in the spheres of education, medicine, STEM, and beyond, has profound effects within those spheres and on the people impacted by them.