Proxied perspectives: immigrant and low-income women presented to the royal commission on the status of women, 1968

Called in 1967 in response to social unrest, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women accepted letters, briefs, and presentations in support of social and economic parity for women in Canada. This thesis engages briefs submitted to the Commission on behalf of immigrant and impoverished women living in Vancouver's downtown neighbourhoods, penned by agents not part of the community being represented. This study analyzes how marginalized women's experiences were framed by "proxied" representatives to the Commission; by the Commission; and by spectators such as the mainstream newspaper media. Though the Commission was structured to accept proxied accounts as directly representative, this study concludes that additional interrogation of the ambiguity or contradictions in these "proxied" accounts was required for the Commission to more concretely represent what Vancouver's marginalized women required for a chance at social equality.