In Search of the Unbound Prometheia
A Comparative View of Women's Activism in Two Quebec Industries, 1869-1908
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3982147 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jacques A Ferland (University of Maine, corresponding author), Jacques Ferland |
| Year | 1989 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Pages | 11 |
| Publication date | 1989-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Labour / Le Travail (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0700-3862 • E-ISSN: 1911-4842 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/25143241 |
| OpenAlex | W1542289731 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
One of the most salient features of women's earlier contribution to the labour movement in Quebec, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is the prominent and often militant role of female cotton workers. Long before they formed an industrial labour organization, the cotton girls rose persistently, in most mills, against various attempts to further appropriate absolute and relative surplus-value. After having formally joined forces with fellow male unionists, they carried with this activism a more acute challenge to managerial prerogatives and patriarchal standards of criminality in a major assault on child and gender-related abuses. The following essay explores, in a comparative mode and from the perspective of the workplace, why female cotton workers were more assertive and have left far greater evidence of their proneness to strike than other women operatives in the boot and shoe industry. It also focuses on two important episodes of female militancy at the Hochelaga and Ste. Anne mills in order to provide a socio-economic context to their activism and to witness how solidarity could evolve rapidly into estrangement over sensitive gender-related issues. Resume Energique et militante, la lutte des travailleuses du coton constitue l'un des chapitres les plus palpitants du mouvement ouvrier quebecois de la fin du 19e au debut du 20e siecles. Dans la majorite des filatures, celles-ci s'insurgerent contre plusieurs tentatives visant a accentuer l'appropriation de la plus-value absolue et relative, longtemps avant qu'elles ne joignent une federation syndicale industrielle. Une fois syndiqees, elles se lancerent resolument a l'attaque d'abus de toute sorte contre les femmes et les enfants, n'hesitant pas, chemin faisant, a defier certains privileges capitalistes et a remettre en question les preceptes de criminalite issus d'une societe patriarchale. C'est par le biais d'une methode comparative et d'une perspective axee sur le milieu de travail que cet article propose d'explorer pourquoi ces travailleuses furent nettement plus engagees que leurs consoeurs dans l'industrie de la chaussure, comme en fait foir leur predisposition a se mobiliser et a se soulever avec persistance contre le capital malgre des obstacles douvent insurmontables. Il porte aussi sur deux episodes clefs de ce militantisme feminin aux filatures d'Hochelaga et de Sainte-Anne, dans le but d'y retracer le contexte socio-emotionelle et d'observer jusqu'a quel point cette solidarite ouvriere reste vulnerable aux questions liees a la conditions feminine
Economic geography · Geography · Political science · Canadian Identity and History · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis
| Citations per year | 0.11 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1991 - 2010 (20) |
| Highly cited | No |