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
those 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 medial doctors, openly
espoused a sexual double standard and sough 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 fascinating 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.'
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