Research Catalog

Regulating girls and women : sexuality, family, and the law in Ontario, 1920-1960

Title
Regulating girls and women : sexuality, family, and the law in Ontario, 1920-1960 / Joan Sangster.
Author
Sangster, Joan, 1952-
Publication
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library HV6593.C2 S363 2001Off-site

Details

Description
viii, 278 pages : illustrations; 21 cm
Summary
"For people living in Ontario, as throughout Canada, the period from 1920 to 1960 was one of great change and turmoil - the roaring twenties, the Great Depression, the upheaval of war, and the economic boom of the postwar years. One constant in society over these years, however, was the differential treatment that females and males received before the law, especially in regard to family matters and sexuality. A patriarchal justice system, increasingly under the influence of 'expert' opinion from social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other medical doctors, openly espoused a sexual double standard and sought to regulate the behaviour of girls and women 'for their own good'. Indeed, women in physically abusive relationships were at times advised by judges, probation officers, and social workers to 'go home and sleep with your husband' on the assumption that keeping him sexually sated would end the violence." "In this study of sexuality, family, and the law, historian Joan Sangster focuses on key issues that drew women into the courts, as plaintiffs and defendants: incest and sexual abuse, wife assault, prostitution, female delinquency, and the unique 'colonization of the soul' that Aboriginal women had to endure before the law. As Sangster writes: 'While history does not offer pat solutions to present dilemmas, it may stimulate some sobering second thoughts on current debates - by dissecting the changing definitions of criminality and the process by which law constituted gender, race, and class relations, by mounting a critique of past reform efforts, and, importantly, by suggesting how the law affected the lives of girls and women who came into conflict with it.'"--Jacket.
Series Statement
The Canadian social history series
Uniform Title
Canadian social history series.
Subject
  • 1900-1999
  • Girls > Ontario > Social conditions
  • Girls > Sexual behavior > Ontario
  • Girls > Legal status, laws, etc. > History > Ontario > 20th century
  • Sexual harassment of women > Ontario > History > 20th century
  • Domestic relations > Ontario > History > 20th century
  • Women > Legal status, laws, etc. > History > Ontario > 20th century
  • Sex discrimination against women > Ontario > History
  • Sex and law
  • Women > Legal status, laws, etc. > Ontario
  • Women > history
  • Sex discrimination against women
  • Sex and law
  • Domestic relations
  • Girls > Legal status, laws, etc
  • Girls > Sexual behavior
  • Girls > Social conditions
  • Sexual harassment of women
  • Women > Legal status, laws, etc
  • Sekseverschillen
  • Familierelaties
  • Ontario
Genre/Form
History
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-271) and index.
Contents
Introduction -- Incest, the sexual abuse of children, and the power of familialism -- Rhetoric of shame, reality of leniency : wife assault and the law -- Prostitution and promiscuity : sexual regulation and the law -- "Out of control" : girls in conflict with the law -- Native women, sexuality, and the law -- Conclusion.
ISBN
  • 0195416635
  • 9780195416633
LCCN
2002278635
OCLC
  • ocm46433820
  • 46433820
  • SCSB-1218554
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library