Abstract
Feminism and nationalism have intertwined in the Quebec feminist movement. In this chapter, I analyse the links between the two movements from the end of the 1960s to the middle of the 1990s, that is, from the creation of the Front de libération des femmes to the 1995 referendum. Second, I examine how the neoliberal turn of the nationalist movement and the social justice turn of the feminist movement widened the discrepancy between the two movements and opened a new political space that render audible minorized voices in the feminist movement, mainly those of immigrant or racialized women and of Aboriginal women. Finally, I will insist on the gendered nature of the nation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Québécoises deboutte ! [Québécoises stand up!] is the name of the first issue of the journal published by the Front de libération des femmes du Québec [Women’s Liberation Front of Quebec], a title later taken on by the Centre des femmes [Women’s Centre]. The slogan was used once again in 2009 by the Fédération des femmes du Québec [Quebec Women’s Federation] under the guise Québécoises toujours deboutte [Quebec women are still standing up].
- 2.
“Pas de Québec libre sans libération des femmes, pas de femmes libres sans libération du Québec!”
- 3.
The Parti Québécois was founded in 1968 as a result of the fusion between Option Québec (a group centred around René Lévesque and which represented the sovereigntist wing of the Liberal Party) and the Rassemblement national [National Rally] (a rather ethnic nationalist group). On the same year, the Rassemblement pour l’indépendance nationale [Rally for National Independence] (left-wing nationalist) dissolved and asked its members to join the Parti Québécois , a request which did not please its left wing, led by Andrée Ferretti. At that time, the Parti Québécois was far from having homogenized all nationalist forces, and outside this political formation, many nationalist groups were active in the extra-parliamentary arena. Among the most active organizations outside the electoral scene, excluding groups dedicated to the linguistic question as well as the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste , we can mention the Front de Libération du Québec [Quebec Liberation Front], which virtually disappeared following the two kidnappings that led to the October Crisis in 1970, and the Front de libération populaire [Popular Liberation Front].
- 4.
“On doit savoir que nous lutterons pour la libération des femmes au sein du mouvement révolutionnaire et que nous ne tolérerons plus d’être discriminées à l’intérieur même de ce movement”
- 5.
Fanon re-emerged later on in postcolonial thought, but only after being reinterpreted by anglophone postcolonial thinkers.
- 6.
“À l’encontre de la majorité des femmes formant le mouvement féministe des pays occidentaux, les féministes québécoises de la première heure étaient plus tiers-mondistes qu’ailleurs; on se sentait très près des femmes des mouvements de libération du tiers-monde. Les féministes de cette première vague étaient, à l’encontre du mouvement international, nationalistes”.
- 7.
Madeleine Parent was a union organizer who became famous after numerous strikes involving mainly women in the textile industry in Quebec during and immediately after World War II. She was a founding member of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women , an organization that sought to federate women’s groups in Canada, in 1972, and became Quebec representative on its board from 1972 to 1983. She was also involved in the Fédération des femmes du Québec and participated in the Marche du pain et des roses [Bread and Roses March] in 1995 and the World March of Women in 2000.
- 8.
“Parce que l’exploitation spécifique des femmes est basée sur des conditions matérielles qui sont liées à la division du travail, à la structure de la famille et de la société de classes et que la libération des femmes québécoises nécessite la transformation de la famille et la destruction du système économique et politique actuel”.
- 9.
It would be more appropriate to talk about suffrage for non-Aboriginal women in Quebec. Aboriginal peoples, both men and women, only obtained suffrage in 1960 following an amendment to the Canadian Indian Act.
- 10.
The Charter of the French Language (Bill101) is a law that was passed by the Parti Québécois in 1977 defining French as the official language in Quebec. One of its main provisions was to ensure that the language of instruction, from kindergarten to secondary school, should be French. As a result immigrants, who previously used to attend English-speaking schools and assimilate to the English-speaking group, started to attend French-speaking public schools and became more in contact with the French-speaking majority group and more involved in social movements, including the feminist movement. After Bill 101, Québécois of French descent became more aware of Québec diversity and most of them rally around a civic rather than an ethnic definition of the Québécois nation.
- 11.
Expression used by the FFQ committee concerned with questions of immigration and racism.
- 12.
“l’engagement reste insuffisant non pas tant en matière de modalités d’action, mais surtout en fait de pratiques au sein des organisations. […] Les résistances sur la question de la diversité « ethnoculturelle » sont fortes et révèlent une dynamique de domination entre majoritaires et minoritaires au sein du mouvement”
- 13.
“s’allier, pour la première fois, la participation des groupes de femmes de toutes couleurs et origines ethniques, un rapprochement de première importance pour toutes, vu la diversité des organisations de femmes des communautés ethnoculturelles et l’histoire difficile de nos alliances passées”
- 14.
This fracture however re-emerged when the FFQ, the main organization behind the March, pronounced itself in favour of Quebec sovereignty during the 1992 Bélanger-Campeau Commission , and participated in activities designed by Partenaires de la souveraineté [Partners for Sovereignty] during the 1995 referendum.
- 15.
During this period most governments were formed by the Liberal Party although the Parti Québécois was in power from 1976 to 1985 and from 1994 to 2003. But at that time the Liberal Party although it strongly rejected Quebec sovereignty was nationalist and contributed to the development of Quebec welfare State.
- 16.
“Les modalités d’action de ces mouvements [du Pain et des roses en 1995 et la Marche mondiale des femmes (MMF) en 2000] ont alors été plus inclusives et ont intégré les préoccupations des immigrantes qui n’ont d’ailleurs pas boudé ces mobilisations”.
- 17.
The World March of Women is an international movement connecting grassroots groups and organizations working to eliminate poverty and violence against women. The movement developed after the Fédération des femmes du Québec, in the aftermath of the Marche du Pain et des Roses, and launched an appeal to international action and solidarity. The first World March took place in 2000. Since then the WMW has organized international actions every five years. The WMW also attended the first Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2001.
- 18.
I am borrowing this concept from Adrienne Rich (1979, 306), who uses it to describe “not the consciously held belief that one race is inherently Superior to all others, but a tunnel-vision which simply does not see nonwhite experience or existence as precious or significant”.
- 19.
I place this term between quotation marks because there is no proof that racialized feminists possess a different attitude towards Aboriginal peoples than their counterparts of European descent.
- 20.
“nation conquise, mais également nation complice d’un Occident triomphant, adhérant au récit des deux peuples fondateurs, duquel est occulté toute référence à l’idée de conquête, de génocide ou d’esclavage”.
- 21.
“[s]i le féminisme québécois a montré récemment des signes d’ouverture aux questions de différences, sans toutefois que les femmes subalternes accèdent pleinement au statut de sujets de ce féminisme, c’est que cette ouverture s’est faite sans véritable réflexion sur les dynamiques de pouvoir qui continuent d’opérer dans la définition du sujet-femme universel au centre des revendications des féministes québécoises”.
- 22.
I have already addressed this issue in more detail in Lamoureux 2001.
References
Beauchamp, Colette, ed. 1994. Pour Changer le Monde. Le Forum Pour un Québec Féminin Pluriel. Montréal: Écosociété.
Fougeyrollas-Schwebel, Dominique. 1997. Le Féminisme des Années 1970. In Encyclopédie Politique et Historique du Féminisme, ed. Christine Fauré, 729–770. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Guilbault, Diane. 2008. Démocratie et Égalité des Sexes. Montréal: Sisyphe.
Lamoureux, Diane. 1986. Fragments et Collages. Essai sur le Féminisme Québécois des Années 70. Montréal: Remue-ménage.
———. 2001. L’Amère Patrie. Montréal: Remue-ménage.
Lanctôt, Martine. 1980. Genèse et Evolution du Mouvement Féministe à Montréal. M.A. Dissertation, UQAM.
Maillé, Chantal. 2007. Réception de la Théorie Postcoloniale dans le Féminisme Québécois. Recherches Féministes 20 (2): 91–111.
Manifeste des Femmes Québécoises. 1971. Montréal: L’Étincelle.
O’Leary, Véronique, and Louise Toupin. 1982. Québécoises Deboutte! Tome 1. Montréal: Remue-Ménage.
Osmani, Farida. 2002. L’égalité pour Toutes? L’Engagement Féministe et les Droits des Immigrantes au Québec. Recherches Féministes 15 (2): 124–145.
Rich, Adrienne. 1979. Disloyal to Civilization: Feminism, Racism, Gynephobia (1978), On Lies, Secret and Silence, 275–310. New York: Norton.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lamoureux, D. (2018). Feminism and Nationalism in Québec. In: Mulholland, J., Montagna, N., Sanders-McDonagh, E. (eds) Gendering Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76699-7_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76699-7_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76698-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76699-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)