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No Daughter of Mine:  The
Women and History of the Canadian Women's Press Club, 1904-1971.
Kay Rex. Subject Headings:
Grades 10 - 13 / Ages 14 to Adult.
***/4
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excerpt:
No daughter of mine will ever become a reporter. . .
. . .
. . . but had just not thought of women . . .
. . .
. . . none has included a representation of Canadian newswomen.
VETERAN TORONTO JOURNALIST Kay Rex (Canadian Press, the CBC, The Globe and Mail) gives us a comprehensive look at the sixty-seven-year history of the Canadian Women's Press Club with grace and wit. Begun by a feisty group of women fourteen years before women had the vote, and in a time when women were discriminated against not only in the professions, but even in acquiring education, the CWPC provided a much-needed support, network, and educational centre for women working as journalists and authors.
Today newswomen
travel the world and work in all media, but these victories were hard
won, and Rex's book pays tribute to the "founders and fighters" and
their successors along the way. There are delightful insights into women
who played historic roles, such as Kit Coleman, the first club president
and the first woman war correspondent; Emily Murphy, who took her fight
to have women declared "persons" to the British Privy Council; and
Nellie McClung, the suffragette and satirist.
At its peak, in
1957, the CWPC had 675 members and 17 branches across the country that
met in a triennial national conference.
Highlights of the
CWPC's history included a break-through tour of post-war Britain (though
that does not sound like a big deal today), and an extensive 1955 trip to
Europe for seventy-odd women journalists that culminated in a hard-won
tour through the iron-curtained USSR, when the "Red" carpet was actually
laid out for them (note that future Prime Minister Lester Pearson was to
follow their lead).
As a result of
this trip, for the first time news stories from Russia were filled with
"the little human details missing for so long in dispatches sent out
from behind the Iron Curtain." While the CWPC journalists were unable to
get all of their pictures and collected literature out of Russia, they
did obtain film that gave North America "its first look inside the USSR
in 20 years."
Pictures and
articles filled Canadian publications for weeks, confounding "members of
the world press, who were having a hard time getting anything tangible in
the way of news out of the Kremlin-dominated USSR."
Other noteworthy
events included sponsoring thirty-three foreign journalists to come and
participate in Canada's centennial.
Everything in
this multi-faceted book is interesting, except for the boring list of
rules and regulations and the catalogue of difficulties in collecting
dues. Organizing this much material was likely a major challenge. The book begins with a
discussion of the personalities, and then follows with the history, of
the club, and there is some overlap and repetition between the
sections.
Most readers will
enjoy the picture section and be touched by the humanity revealed in the
women photographed -- as when the Vancouver chapter arranged the funeral
for their beloved Pauline Johnson.
This book will
appeal especially to women, and will be particularly instructive for
young or aspiring members of the media, those who study the role of women
in history, and all those who take their present rights and privileges
for granted. And of course, it will be an education for men.
Highly recommended.
Grace Shaw is a teacher at Vancouver Community College.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cmeditor@mts.net.
Copyright © 1996 the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice
is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364