The Women’s History Project is excited to invite you to our second Writing Women Into History webinar series. Our 2026 theme is: From Resistance to Redesign: Women Transforming Work

Across Canada and beyond, the movement to learn, teach, and protect women’s histories is reaching a defining moment. For generations, feminist scholars, leaders, and changemakers have shown how women’s stories — including around labour, leadership, and resistance — have been undervalued or unknown. Reclaiming these histories offers more than overdue recognition: it gives us the insight we need to redesign the future of work. By understanding where inequities come from, we can challenge them more effectively, champion fairer practices, and build systems that truly value women’s contributions.

The Women’s History Project invites you to be part of this powerful three‑part webinar series, where we confront these gaps together. You’ll hear directly from women who have researched these histories, lived them, and fought to change the conditions shaping women’s work in Canada and from women who continue to challenge the status quo and look ahead to new opportunities. —as well as from those continuing to challenge the status quo and push toward new possibilities.

This series is for anyone committed to gender justice: students, educators, researchers, labour organizers, activists, policymakers, community advocates, and emerging leaders who believe that understanding women’s history is essential to transforming our world. collective future. We must know our history to defend our future.

Session 1: Picket Lines & Power: Women Who Reshaped Work (use this link to register)

March 5, 2026, 4:30pm – 6:00pm EST

This session traces the pivotal moments, movements, and voices that shaped women’s labour history—from early suffrage activism to the 1981 postal workers’ strike that transformed maternity leave rights, to the legal battles that redefined workplace protections. This is history told not as a timeline, but as a legacy of resistance. Meet our panelists!

Marion Pollack  (Moderator)

Marion Pollack is a retired postal worker and a former activist in the Canadian Union of Postal Workers from Vancouver B.C.  She held elected positions locally, regionally, and nationally in CUPW, but her most important role was that of a CUPW shop steward.  With a group of other people, she worked for gender equality in her Union, the workplace, and the labour movement. In retrospect she wishes she could have been more inclusive and diverse in this work.  She was a member of the CUPW National Women’s Committee for over 9 years.  Marion was an active participant in the 1981  CUPW strike which resulted in paid maternity leave for postal workers.

Joan Sangster, Professor, Trent University

Joan Sangster is a Vanier Professor Emeritus at Trent University, Peterborough, where she taught in History, Canadian Studies, and Gender and Women’s Studies. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and past president of the Canadian Historical Association/ Société historique du Canada, she held visiting fellowships at McGill, Duke, and Princeton Universities. She has written eight books, co-edited seven essay collections, and published book chapters and articles dealing with working women, the labour movement, suffrage movements, women and the law, Indigenous settler relations, and feminist historiography.

Joan’s book, Earning Respect: The Lives of Working Women in Small – Town Ontario won the Canada prize and Transforming Labour: Women and Work in Postwar Canada an honourable mention for the CHA’s Canadian history book prize. Her recent Demanding Equality: A History of Canadian Feminism, which secured the Hilda Neatby prize for the best book in women’s and gender history, offers an overview of Canadian feminism which argues for the politically multi-vocal, hybrid character of equality-seeking women’s movements in Canada. She has been an associate and co-editor of the US-based Labor: Studies in Working-Class Histories of the America and the Canadian Labour.

Julia Smith, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba

Julia is an associate professor in the Labour Studies Program at the University of Manitoba on Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Her research and teaching focuses on the history and politics of work, unions, labour relations, and women’s activism in North America. She has an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University and an M.A. and B.A. Hons. in History from Simon Fraser University.  She is also a member of the Graphic History Collective.

Dr Leslie Nichols, Assistant Professor, Laurentian University

Leslie Nichols is an assistant professor in the Equity, Diversity, and Human Rights program within the Sociology unit at the School of Social Sciences at Laurentian University. She holds a PhD in Policy Studies, an MA in Work and Society (now Labour Studies), and a joint BA in Women’s and Gender Studies and Historical Studies. She grew up in several regions across Canada—including Northern Alberta, Northern Quebec, and Southern Ontario—and has strong family connections to Nova Scotia.

As a structural intersectionalist, Dr. Nichols uses theories of neoliberalism, feminism, and intersectionality to study and improve the working and living conditions of some of Canada’s most equity‑deserving communities. Her research focuses on the work experiences and social well‑being of groups such as immigrants, youth, and people marginalized by gender. She has examined issues related to unemployment, precarious work, self‑employment, and unpaid labour.

Join us for two more session!

We would love it if you would join us for Session 2 & 3 of this inspiring series.

You can reserve for all three sessions here on Eventbrite —- or to each of the individual events below.

Session 2: Voices Rising: Activism and the Modern Workplace

April 9, 2026, 4:30pm – 6:00pm EDT

This session will examine persistent inequities across industries, women’s unpaid work, the impact of the care economy on women’s labour and barriers faced by women with diverse identities. This is a call to action for anyone committed or interested in how to buildbuilding workplaces where all women can thrive.

Session 3: Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Designing Tomorrow’s Workplaces

May 7, 2026, 4:30pm – 6:00pm EDT

This forward-looking session will explore emerging opportunities for women in evolving industries,  how leaders can build equitable, inclusive futures and the lessons today’s trailblazers want to pass on. This is a conversation about possibility—and responsibility.

Why This Series Matters

Women’s histories have too often been pushed to the margins of mainstream narratives. Yet these stories—of struggle, solidarity, innovation, leadership, and courage—are essential to understanding how gender inequality has been built, resisted, and reshaped over generations.

From the early fights for maternity leave and reproductive rights, to landmark human rights cases, to decades of unpaid and under‑recognized labour, women have continually challenged Canada to confront its inequities. The push for pay equity, workplace safety, accessible childcare, and fair representation is part of a long continuum of women demanding better—for themselves, for their families, and for their communities. And while progress has been made, the work is far from finish

Founded in 20221, The Women’s History Project is committed to advancing gender equality by shining a light on women’s achievements across Canadian history. We believe that understanding the past equips women—and allies—to lead, advocate, and create meaningful change today.

We hope to see you there!

Visit our Substack to learn more about what the Women’s History Project does, and find out about our 1000 Voices, 1000 Stories podcast, subscribe to the Voices & Stories weekly digest, and explore recommendationsrecommendation from On Our Bookshelf.  

Be part of the history we’re building.

Join us there.