Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1995
Abstract
This intriguing collection of accessible essays focuses largely on aspects of the relationship that Alberta women have had with public institutions, both formal and informal, from 1904 to the present. While all the essays cover worthwhile topics, some have been developed in only rudimentary fashion, while others are comprehensive and contain sophisticated analyses.
Among the articles dealing with women's voluntary activities, the highlight is an essay by Michael Owen on the Methodist and United Church Women's Missionary Society's missions to Ukrainians in eastern Alberta between 1904 and 1940. Like many missionaries elsewhere, these women had their greatest successes, not in conversions, but in offering medical and educational services to people who lived in areas not yet covered by public institutions or by organizations run by their own ethnic communities. Owen's description of the WMS residential schools for Ukrainian girls opens the door for some interesting comparisons to residential schools for Native children in Canada.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 15:1 (Winter 1995). Copyright © 1995 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.