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The History of women in Canada is the study of the historical experiences of women living in Canada and the laws and legislation affecting Canadian women. In colonial period of Canadian history, Indigenous women's roles were often challenged by Christian missionaries, and their marriages to European fur traders often brought their communities into greater contact with the outside world. Throughout the colonial period, European women were encouraged to immigrate to Canadian colonies and expand the white population. After Confederation in 1867, women's experiences were shaped by federal laws and by legislation passed in Canada's provincial legislatures. Women have been a key part of Canada's labour market, social movements, and culture for centuries, and yet they have faced systematic discrimination. Women were given the federal franchise in 1918, served in both the First World War and the Second World War, and participated in the second-wave feminist movement from the 1960s onwards. Historians have been researching and writing about women's history in Canada in increasing numbers since the 1960s. Quebec In the 1660s, the French government sent about 800 young women (single or widowed) called King's Daughters ("filles du roi"). They quickly found husbands among the predominantly male settlers, as well as a new life for themselves. They came mostly from poor families in the Paris area, Normandy, and the central-western regions of France. A handful were ex-prostitutes, but only one is known to have practised that trade in Canada. As farm wives with very good nutrition and high birth rates, they played a major role in establishing family life and enabling rapid demographic growth. They had about 30% more children than comparable women who remained in France. Landry says, "Canadians had an exceptional diet for their time. This was due to the natural abundance of meat, fish, and pure water; the good food conservation conditions during the winter; and an adequate wheat supply in most years." Besides household duties, some women participated in the fur trade, the major source of cash in New France. They worked at home alongside their husbands or fathers as merchants, clerks, and provisioners. Some were widowed and took over their husbands' roles. A handful were active entrepreneurs in their own right. In the early 19th century down to the 1950s, upper-class Anglos dominated high society in Montreal, and their women constructed and managed their identity and social position through central events in the social life, such as the coming out of debutantes. The elite young women were trained in intelligent philanthropy and civic responsibility, especially through the Junior Leagues. They seldom connected with the reform impulses of the middle-class women, and for and were paternalistic in their views of the needs of working-class women. Catholic nuns Outside the home, Canadian women had few domains which they controlled. An important exception came with Roman Catholic nuns, especially in Quebec. Stimulated by the influence in France of the popular religiosity of the Counter Reformation, new orders for women began appearing in the seventeenth century. In the next three centuries, women opened dozens of independent religious orders, funded in part by dowries provided by the parents of young nuns. The orders specialized in charitable works, including hospitals, orphanages, homes for unwed mothers, and schools. In the first half of the twentieth century, about 2–3% of Quebec's young women became nuns; there were 6,600 in 1901 and 26,000 in 1941. In Quebec in 1917, 32 different teaching orders operated 586 boarding schools for girls. At that time, there was no public education for girls in Quebec beyond elementary school. Hospitals were another specially, the first of which was founded in 1701. In 1936, the nuns of Quebec operated 150 institutions, with 30,000 beds to care for the long-term sick, the homeless, and orphans. On a smaller scale, Catholic orders of nuns operated similar institutions in other provinces. The Quiet Revolution of the 1960s combined declericalization with the dramatic reforms of Vatican II. There was a dramatic change in the role of nuns. Many left the convent, while very few young women entered. The provincial government took over the nuns' traditional role as provider of many of Quebec's educational and social services. Often, ex-nuns continued the same roles in civilian dress, but also men for the first time started entering the teaching profession. Historiography The history of women in Quebec was generally neglected before 1980. The advent of the feminist movement, combined with the "New social history" that featured the study of ordinary people, created a new demand for a historiography of women. The first studies emerged from a feminist perspective and stressed their role as the terms who had been reduced to inferiority in a world controlled by men. Feminists sought the family itself as the centrepiece of the patriarchal system, where fathers and husbands oppressed and alienated women. The second stage came when historians presented a more positive and balanced view. Research has often been interdisciplinary, using insights from feminist theory, literature, anthropology, and sociology to study gender relations, socialization, reproduction, sexuality, and unpaid work. Labour and family history have proved particularly open to these themes. Marriage and family law In Quebec, women's rights within marriage and family law have advanced slower than in the rest of Canada. Quebec has been slow on giving civil rights to married women: until 1954, a married woman was legally listed as "incapable of contracting", together with minors, "interdicted persons", "persons insane or suffering a temporary derangement of intellect ... or who by reason of weakness of understanding are unable to give a valid consent", and "persons who are affected by civil degradation". The removal of the married woman from this list, however, did little to improve her legal situation, due to marriage laws which restricted her rights and gave the husband legal authority over her: legal incapacity was still the general rule. A major change followed in 1964: Bill 16 (An Act respecting the legal capacity of married women) removed the obligation of the wife to obey her husband, and gave the married woman full legal capacity subject to restrictions that may result from the matrimonial regime. However, discriminatory provisions resulting from matrimonial regimes and from other legal regulations still remained. In July 1970, Bill 10 came into force, reforming matrimonial regimes, and improving the situation of married women. In 1977 another important change took place: the wife obtained equal rights with the husband with regard to legal authority over the children during marriage, abolishing the previous rule of 'paternal authority' which gave the husband more legal rights with regard t.... Discover the Beth Prentice popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Beth Prentice books.