Chapter 5 - The Second Feminist Wave

Summary

By the 1960s, the first feminist wave, Nellie McClung, Lucy Maud Montgomery, and Mazo de la Roche, had receded, their fates now resting on the banks of time. De la Roche, who died in 1961, witnessed the dwindling sales of all her novels, most of them consigned now to oblivion. McClung, who died in1951, is regarded only as one of the “Famous Five,” the women who, in 1927, challenged the meaning of the word “Persons,” which excluded women from Senate appointments; though they lost their challenge, the verdict was overturned by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; none of her books, however, is in print. Only Montgomery, who died in 1942, survived as a major force, all her books still in print and many female writers espousing her inspiration and influence. In the 1950s, women again assumed a major role, Mavis Gallant and Sheila Watson heralding the unique place women held in the development of Canadian fiction.