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Lament For a Patriarchy Lost? Anti-Feminism, Anti-Abortion and R.E.A.L. Women in Canada
Dubinsky, Karen
Publisher: Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of WomenYear Published: 1987 Pages: 51pp Resource Type: Pamphlet Cx Number: CX3266 Author Karen Dubinsky, a graduate student of women's studies at Carleton University, focues on the beliefs and rise of the Anti-feminist, anti-abortion new right in Canada. Abstract: In 1984, R.E.A.L. Women arrived on the Canadian political scene. This group, claiming 10,000 members, opposes easier divorce laws, universal daycare, liberalized abortion laws, affirmative action, equal pay for work of equal value, and the leglization of prostitution. Author Karen Dubinsky, a graduate student of women's studies at Carleton University, focues on the beliefs and rise of the Anti-feminist, anti-abortion new right in Canada. Is it just a pale imitation of the highly visible, anti-feminist new right in the United States? Dubinsky warns feminists to take R.E.A.L. Women seriously since the potential for growth in Canada of a right wing movement made up of women opposed to the women's movement and all it represents is a very real danger. It is too easy and perhaps foolhardy for feminists to write these groups off as fanatical housewives who are victims of male ideology. Dubinsky examines the history of abortion legislation in Canada, the development of pro-choice and anti-abortion movements, and the ideology of the "pro-life" posiiton. She notes that within the pro-life position there is a minority of feminist-humanist opinion which approaches the whole issue from a more thoughtful perspective. Dubinsky doesn't draw any firm conclusioins about the future of the anti-feminist right, but her paper is a useful conribution to any disucssion of these volatile issues. Subject Headings |