Women in BC

Gerry Bracewell has lived in the Chilcotin Valley for over seventy-five years. She helped pioneer the valley's early school system and was an advocate for the school district until 1974. Gerry worked and wrote for the Williams Lake Tribune for many years while continuing to run her ranch and raise four children. For five decades, Gerry was a sought-after guide in the Chilcotin. In 2004, she was inducted into the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame as a Pioneer Rancher.

In the canon of contemporary feminist and lesbian poetry, For Your Own Good breaks silence. A fictionalized autobiography, the poems in this collection illustrate the narrator's survival of a domestic and sexual violence in a lesbian relationship. There is magic in this work: the symbolism of the Tarot and the roots of Jewish heritage, but also the magic that is at the heart of transformation and survival. These poems are acutely painful, rooted in singular and firsthand experiences. But Horlick …

The poems in Average Height of Flight are founded in the landscape of coastal BC, built on the losses within the narrator's life in counterpoint to her walks in the natural world. In forests with her dog, along watersheds and hill climbs, Beth Kope goes off trail to find inspiration and time for meditation. She observes as the landscapes change with storms blowing through, absorbs the names of plants, finds sustained comfort whatever the season: crisp, clear days, rain is fine, or the snow that …

Sometimes tragic, sometimes uproariously funny, THIS PLACE A STRANGER is a diverse collection of Canadian women writing about their experiences of travelling alone. From the deceptiveness of the everyday to the extremes of geography, weather and violence, these stories go beyond the usual tales of intrepid male explorers and reveal the varied and unique circumstances in which women travellers find themselves when "going solo."

For one woman, the allure of a multiday hike on a "congenial trail" be …

When thirty-two women were hired as mounted police officers in 1974, it was a media sensation. After all, these were not the brawny heroes of Canadian history, or the dashing and handsome Mounties portrayed in over two hundred Hollywood movies. Women were thought to be afraid of guns and incapable of protecting themselves. Training officers at the RCMP's academy wondered if the women were capable. Could they march? Could they lift weights? Would they cry? The original uniform (pumps, a pillbox h …

When thirty-two women were hired as mounted police officers in 1974, it was a media sensation. After all, these were not the brawny heroes of Canadian history, or the dashing and handsome Mounties portrayed in over two hundred Hollywood movies. Women were thought to be afraid of guns and incapable of protecting themselves. Training officers at the RCMP’s academy wondered if the women were capable. Could they march? Could they lift weights? Would they cry? The original uniform (pumps, a pillbox …

After Sonia Cornwall's father died in 1939, her mother inherited the Onward Ranch and a huge debt. To make the ranch viable, a twenty-year-old Sonia traded paintbrush for pitchfork, labouring alongside the male ranch hands. But after marrying Hugh Cornwall in 1947, Sonia had time for painting once again. She learned techniques from some of Canada's most celebrated artists who came to visit the Onward Ranch, and later her home at the Jones Ranch, from Peter Aspell, Mollly Bobak and Jack Hardman t …

Ruth Bowers had a dream of becoming a professional violinist. In 1910, when traditional careers for women included nursing or teaching, Ruth joined the chautauqua and lyceum tour circuit and hit the road.
In the first part of the twentieth century, these popular tours brought music, education and entertainment to millions of people in rural North America. But chautauquas and lyceums also provided employment and fame for many female lecturers and performers. At a time when women did not even hav …