"Passing years have only added new lustre to the figure of Agnes Macphail, Canada’s first woman MP. In this biography, Terry Crowley offers a heroine for our times with the depiction of Macphail the accomplished politician, the committed feminist and the complex, well-rounded witty human being. A democratic populist who emerged politically during the post-World War One farmers’ revolt, Macphail helped build the alliance that became the CCF party and ended the two major parties’ total domination of national political life. She later served the CCF as Ontario’s first woman MPP. In all her activities Macphail was an outspoken advocate of equality and human rights. She worked tirelessly to win recognition of women’s rights, to reform the nation’s penal system and to secure international peace. She pressed for controls on lobbying and for disclosure of business influences on the media. Strong convictions, openness to fresh ideas and devotion to democratic values were Macphail’s distinguishing characteristics."--Page 4 of cover.

"Passing years have only added new lustre to the figure of Agnes Macphail, Canada’s first woman MP. In this biography, Terry Crowley offers a heroine for our times with the depiction of Macphail the accomplished politician, the committed feminist and the complex, well-rounded witty human being. A democratic populist who emerged politically during the post-World War One farmers’ revolt, Macphail helped build the alliance that became the CCF party and ended the two major parties’ total domination of national political life. She later served the CCF as Ontario’s first woman MPP. In all her activities Macphail was an outspoken advocate of equality and human rights. She worked tirelessly to win recognition of women’s rights, to reform the nation’s penal system and to secure international peace. She pressed for controls on lobbying and for disclosure of business influences on the media. Strong convictions, openness to fresh ideas and devotion to democratic values were Macphail’s distinguishing characteristics."--Page 4 of cover.

An exciting account of the origins of the modern world Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since. Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong. How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William “Braveheart” Wallace to James Bond. And no one who takes this incredible historical trek will ever view the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again.

"The 2012 report recognized that expanding women's agency - their ability to make decisions and take advantage of opportunities is key to improving their lives as well as the world. This report represents a major advance in global knowledge on this critical front. The vast data and thousands of surveys distilled in this report cast important light on the nature of constraints women and girls continue to face globally. This report identifies promising opportunities and entry points for lasting transformation, such as interventions that reach across sectors and include life-skills training, sexual and reproductive health education, conditional cash transfers, and mentoring. It finds that addressing what the World Health Organization has identified as an epidemic of violence against women means sharply scaling up engagement with men and boys. The report also underlines the vital role information and communication technologies can play in amplifying women's voices, expanding their economic and learning opportunities, and broadening their views and aspirations. The World Bank Group's twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity demand no less than the full and equal participation of women and men, girls and boys, around the world." -- Publisher's description.

Focusing on white Anglo-Protestant farm women in southern and southwestern Ontario, Monda Halpern argues that many Ontario farm women were indeed feminist, and that this feminism was more progressive than their conservative image has suggested. In And On That Farm He Had a Wife Halpern demonstrates that Ontario farm women adhered to social feminism - a feminism that focused on values and experiences associated with women and that emphasized the differences between women and men, promoting female specificity, solidarity, and separatism. These principles were informed by farm women's overlapping roles as wives and unpaid farm labourers.

The Last Suffragist Standing is an unprecedented study of a pioneering Canadian suffragist and politician, a New Woman who tested Canadian democracy. A rich product of archival and public sources, this biography of Laura Marshall Jamieson (1882–1964) opens a window onto the political and social landscape of the time. Veronica Strong-Boag chronicles Jamieson’s life from orphaned child of marginal Ontario farmers to member of British Columbia’s Legislative Assembly and Vancouver city councillor. The last suffragist in Canada to be elected to a provincial or federal legislature, Jamieson embraced issues such as factory labour conditions, minimum wage, feminist pacifism, housing, municipal franchise, employment equality, and internationalism throughout six decades of activism. Strong-Boag’s meticulous research and deep knowledge of the history of the women’s movement and Canadian politics turn this compelling account of a woman’s life into an illuminating work on the history of feminism, socialism, internationalism, and activism in Canada.