Skip to content

On The Bookshelf: Power Shift and feminism through history

This month's On The Bookshelf looks at Power Shift: The Longest Revolution by Sally Armstrong, who visits Guelph next month
power shift 2

In November, Sally Armstrong will deliver this year’s Massey Lecture, which is a five-part series to "enable distinguished authorities to communicate the results of original study on important subjects of contemporary interest."

Each lecture, broadcast on the CBC, is given in a different city across the country and it is accompanied by a book written by the distinguished lecturer.

But also in November, Sally will also visit us in Guelph to discuss the lecture and her book called Power Shift: The Longest Revolution. Armstrong is also an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker who has been scrutinizing the lives of girls and women for years. Her commitment to women’s issues across the globe makes her an expert in the day to day lives of half of the world. 

If you take a look at the cover, you will see a pretty good representation of what is going on in the western world right now. White guys in suits, sketched in black and white are going down a staircase while a variety of different sorts of women are going up. They are rendered in colour. It’s very effective and definitely pulls you in, but it doesn’t reveal the abundance of information that Sally has gathered over the years.

I have been reading books by, for and about women for decades. I thought that I had a pretty good grip on the history of feminism. Well I didn’t. My overview was definitely 20th and 21st century North America. This is a book that has an anthropological scope. Its high powered lens looks back thousands of years.

I was surprised to learn that in 7400 BC a Turkish settlement was discovered in which women and men shared duties, rights and privileges.  The geological dig showed that women and men were “eating similar foods, lived similar lives and worked in similar works.” Death and burial rituals reinforced a time in which social roles were relatively equal. There are countless other examples in Power Shift which illuminate these more fluid eras. 

There are five chapters in Power Shift: In the Beginning, The Mating Game, The Holy Paradox, When Patriarch Meets Matriarch and Power Shift.

Needless to say Armstrong illustrates that sex and religion were the major players in the constraint and imprisonment of women’s freedom to act in the world. She gives countless examples of positive movement for the rights and status of women.  But she also clarifies that we must never rest on our laurels. The current rise in populism is a wake- up call. 

You can come and hear Sally Armstrong Tuesday, Nov. 5, at Royal City Church on Quebec Street. She’s such a riveting speaker. Tickets are available at The Bookshelf or at the door. Who should come? People who think they know about feminism, men and women who want to know more, young people who are interested in the past, present and future – in other words almost everyone!




Comments


Barb Minett

About the Author: Barb Minett

Barb Minett is a lifelong lover of books, longtime Guelph Resident and co-founder of The Bookshelf at 42 Quebec Str.
Read more