Women's History

Jeanne Mance Founder of l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal. © NAC/C – 146129

Until recently, the great legacy that Canadian women left has gone largely unrecognized. Our public places are filled with statues and plaques to male politicians, military leaders, and community founders, and rightly so. But where are the monuments to women? Who is commemorating the trailblazers who opened up areas of public life to women...who served their families, communities and country...who improved Canadian life and institutions, particularly in areas touching on family life, such as education, health and culture?

The federal government is actively seeking ways to ensure that women’s voices, including those of Aboriginal and ethnocultural women, are heard in the telling of Canadian history. The National Historic Sites’ System Plan is a blueprint for enhancing the recognition of women’s historic achievements. It guides efforts to include more women in Canada’s program of historical commemoration by recognizing nationally significant sites, persons and events. For each category a plaque is placed at a location associated with the historic significance of the site, person or event. Some sites provide more extensive interpretation. Check out the System Plan which offers a summary of some federal commemorations relating to women, along with photographs and a map marking the location of the historic plaques or sites which mark their importance.

The System Plan and community consultations

The System Plan also describes some of the community consultations which have taken place in women’s history and points toward the future. In the early 1990s Parks Canada conducted national workshops to consult historians and other experts on ways in which to enhance the commemoration of women. From these consultations, framework studies were produced on five key topic areas in Canadian history with which women have been engaged: Women and Health Care, Women and Power, Women and Work, Women and Education, and Women and Science and Technology. The studies highlight major themes in the areas in which women participated and provide contextual information on the national significance of women’s role. They help us understand that women’s activities, even when they occurred at the community or provincial level, could have a national impact, especially if the programs or services they developed were adopted elsewhere or became models for public policy. For example, local women’s groups established innovative well-baby clinics and outpost hospitals in pioneer settlements that were later adopted on a larger scale by governments and/or national organizations, thus laying the foundations of the social welfare state. In the next phase of its program to engage Canadians, Parks Canada hopes to build a stronger base of people and organizations interested in working together to enhance the presence of women’s history at historic sites. We hope that our consultations with the community will build bridges to improved recognition of women's historic achievements.