Skip to main content

“Sisterhood is powerful, but not easy:” Conflict, American imperialism, and splintering at the 1971 Vancouver Indochinese Women’s Conference

Resource type
Thesis type
(Thesis) M.A.
Date created
2018-02-21
Authors/Contributors
Abstract
From April 1 to 6 over six-hundred North American women met with six Indochinese delegates during the 1971 Vancouver Indochinese Women’s Conference to discuss anti-war activism and build an anti-war and anti-imperial global sisterhood. Rather than bring women together, the struggle for sisterhood divided women, inciting conflict and confrontation throughout various stages of conference planning as well as during various plenary sessions. In chapter one I argue that the VIWC was an exercise of American imperialism on Canadian soil. Because of American imperialist attitudes, many Canadian women found sisterhood with those of their own national identity. In chapter two I argue that despite the rhetoric around unity and sisterhood, the VIWC actually accelerated splintering amongst participating women’s groups. This should not be seen as a failure; rather it was indicative of change both at the conference and within the women’s movement in general.
Document
Identifier
etd10666
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author.
Permissions
This thesis may be printed or downloaded for non-commercial research and scholarly purposes.
Scholarly level
Supervisor or Senior Supervisor
Thesis advisor: Chenier, Elise
Member of collection
Download file Size
etd10666_CKlein.pdf 1.19 MB

Views & downloads - as of June 2023

Views: 120
Downloads: 7