Inspired by the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in NL, Up She Rises! constitutes a public discussion about women and gender in NL history. It involves academics, researchers, activists, writers, and poets who have studied and written about women and gender in NL history. This is a capstone event to the anniversary year of women’s suffrage in this province. We hope it will inspire people to learn more about the historical experiences of women and gender-diverse folks and to continue the work of engaging with our collective history.
Saturday, November 8
Bruneau Centre, Memorial University
10:00–10:10 am
Heidi Coombs – Introductory Remarks
10:10–10:40 am
Opening Plenary
Linda Kealey – Women’s and Gender History on the Rock: Looking Back and Forging Ahead
10-Minute Break
10:50 am–12:20 pm
Roundtable: Second Wave Feminism
Barbara Doran, Noreen Golfman, Peg Norman, Gerry Rogers
12:20–1:00 pm
Lunch
1:00–1:40 pm
Session 1: Women, Spirituality, and Community
Willeen Keough – The ‘old hag’ meets St. Brigid: Irish-Newfoundland women and the intersection of spiritualities on the southern Avalon
Bonnie Morgan – Sensory Anglicans: Women, Textile Making and Faithfulness in 20th-century Newfoundland
1:40–2:20 pm
Session 2: Mothers, Families, and the State
Terry Bishop Stirling – Regulating Families: The Work of the St. John’s Welfare Office, 1936–1943
Rebecca Ralph – Problems with Pensions, Licensure, and Discrimination: Married Women and the Teacher Shortage in Post-Confederation Newfoundland and Labrador
20-Minute Break
2:40–3:40 pm
Session 3: Gender and Home Production
Meaghan Walker – Production and Consumption in Bonavista: Menswear Sales as a Method to Understand Women’s Home Production using the Ryan’s Merchant Records, 1860–1880s
Raymond Blake & Hayward Blake – South Coast Woman: The Personal Is Historical and History Is Personal
Andrea O’Brien – Some Old White Guy Lived There: Rethinking Existing Narratives and Searching for Herstory
3:40–4:00 pm
Provincial Historic Commemorations Designation
Supper
Anita Best & Ellen Power – Musical Entertainment
Readings of letters representing women’s experiences