Women, labour and law

Historical research, Dr. Joan Sangster readily points out, is "not an obvious, immediate fix" for finding a solution to a problem. But the past, she maintains, holds the keys to many of the questions and issues that concern us today.

After more than a decade of research focused on women - women in politics, women in the workplace and, most recently, women in conflict with the law - Sangster has gained considerable insight into a variety of issues. The numerous awards and wide public acclaim she has received for her books and articles is an indication of the merits of her work, and its widespread recognition offers further proof of the value in examining the past. As she explains, reading about and actually participating in research such as this is useful not just for students of history, but for people from a variety of other backgrounds as well: those interested in community development and/or law, for example, can greatly enhance their appreciation and understanding of some of the problems encountered by women in today's judicial system by finding out what happened in the past. Those in other departments of the university such as Native Studies, Canadian Studies and Sociology, for example, find relevance to many of the issues they encounter, too.

Most of Sangster's previous research, (including a book published in 1995 on the lives of working women in small-town Ontario for which she won the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada's Harold Adams Innis award for best book in social sciences), has focused on the working class and women's history.

She is now exploring women and law, and her work in this area has already begun to garner praise; she was presented with the Canadian Historical Association Hilda Neatby prize for best article in women's history. (She received the same award in 1994 for a piece on women workers in a Peterborough clock factory).

Her book, Regulating Girls and Women: Sexuality, Family and the Law in Ontario, 1920-1960 is due to be published by Oxford University Press in spring 2001, and she is currently working on another dealing with girls in conflict with the law which she expects to be released in the summer of 2001.

Looking ahead, Sangster plans to combine the themes of labour and the law, exploring the legal regulations of working women. Through such work, she says, she hopes to gain and promote a better understanding of both Canadian labour history and the way in which the operation of the law has affected women.

"That may offer some insights into current issues on women in conflict with the law," she points out - as well as some solutions as to how to improve the systems of the future.

A full listing of Sangster's books and other publications is available from the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Native Studies, frostcentre@trentu.ca.