Women Navigating Civic Engagement in Canada
Ontario Women’s History Network (OWHN) Conference
Date: October 24-25, 2025
Location: Fanshawe Pioneer Village – Enter at 1424 Clarke Road, London, Ontario
Breakfast and Lunch Included Saturday with Registration
Friday October 24, 2025:
7:00-8:30pm: Bonnie Sitter, “FINDING THE FARMERETTES: Recovering the Story of Teenage Girls Who Worked the Farms”
She was downsizing when it happened. Going through some old family photographs, Bonnie Sitter found a black-and-white photo of three teenage girls sitting on the running board of a car with a hoe, wide-brimmed hats, and bandanas. On the back was written “Farmerettes, about 1946”. Curious and intrigued, Bonnie recounts that she “went into research mode” and discovered that these three girls were among thousands of young Ontario women who were part of an extensive, government-sponsored war (and postwar) effort from 1941 to 1952. Together with her collaborator, the late Shirleyan English who was a former farmerette herself, they uncovered hundreds of stories and co-authored the 2019 book entitled Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: Memories of Ontario Farmerettes. That work has since been honoured by CANADA POST with a commemorative stamp, presented as a stage play, and more recently an award-winning documentary “We Lend a Hand.” We will hear from Bonnie about the process of researching, interviewing, and celebrating the story of the farmerettes and the significant contributions they made to the war effort and the provincial economy as agricultural labourers. With so many firsthand accounts and photographs to share, this will be an unforgettable evening that highlights a significant, yet little-known part of Ontario women’s history.
Saturday October 25, 2025:
9:00–10:00am – Paper Set #1: Cook Books, Common Law and Morro Castle Disaster (3 X 15 min presentations + 15 Q & A)
- Rebecca Beausaert, U Guelph, “‘The Spartan Cook Book’ and the ‘great public issue’ of Temperance in Small-Town Ontario, 1902-1915”
- Monda Halpern, Western, “By the Power Vested in Us: Self-Styled ‘Marriage’ in the Family of Bessie Starkman”
- Sonia Halpern, Western, “Digging Deeper: How my Civic Engagement with a Cemetery Inspired Research about Morro Castle Victim Eva Hoffman,”
10:00–10:15am – break
10:15–11:15am – Teachers’ Panel: “Teachers’ Best Practices for Integrating Women’s History and Critical Thinking Pedagogy.”
11:15–11:30am – Break
11:30am–12:30pm – Keynote Address – Constance Backhouse: “Reflections on Chilly Climate Activism”
12:30pm – 1:00pm – Lunch
1:00pm – 2:00pm – AGM
2:00pm – 3:00pm – Paper Set #2: Life Stages and Civic Engagement
Sarah Kittilsen, McGill, “’A Small Contribution to Speeding the Victory’: Rural Women and Girls in Wartime Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs, Nova Scotia, 1940 – 1945”
- Tifanie Valade, UOttawa, “’L’ecole maternelle, adjointe de la mere,’ (Kindergarten, the mother’s assistant”). Women’s roles in promoting kindergarten education in Quebec in the 1960s”
- Kate Bradley, UOttawa, “The Raging Grannies: A (Historical) Bedtime Story for Raging Girls”
3:00 –Wrap-Up Comments