Personal and Political details the innovative, courageous, and creative activism of the “second wave” women’s health movement in Canada between 1960 and 2010. This activism (re)claimed women’s bodies, created women-centered spaces and services, and challenged a medically dominated health system.
Feminists challenged diagnoses, treatments, laws, policies, and research, as well as the care women were offered and the way they saw their bodies and themselves. Legions of women, and a few men, made changes ranging from abortion rights to preserving women’s hospitals, to the legalization of midwifery to requiring gendered health research—change that still resonate in the 21st century.
Lorraine Greaves is a feminist activist, researcher and writer on women’s health, violence against women and gender issues. She was the founding director of both the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health in British Columbia and the Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children in Ontario. She is the author or editor of eleven books, on addiction, smoking, gender theory, health promotion, and research methods.
Among her awards for her activism and change making, are the Augusta Stowe Gullen Medal, the Laura Jamieson Prize, the Outstanding Ontario Achievement Award, the YWCA Women of Distinction, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Network for Women Against Tobacco. She received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa, for her contributions to changing the landscape of women’s health in Canada. Lorraine divides her time between Vancouver, British Columbia and Elora, Ontario.