feminism

YWCA Québec celebrates 150 years of support for women with exhibit, new book

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / September 10, 2025 / feminism, Local history, Musée de la Civilisation, Quebec City, Ruby Pratka, YWCA Québec

YWCA Québec celebrates 150 years of support for women with exhibit, new book

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

When Ann Martell arrived in Quebec City as a young anglophone job seeker in 1982, she was told to do what generations of young English-speaking women at loose ends had done before her – go to the YWCA.

Martell went to the organization’s headquarters on Ave. Holland and met the director, Mary Woods. Woods, who died in 2015, was the last in a long line of women from the local anglophone Protestant community who led the YWCA – dating back to a time when women couldn’t legally sign contracts and the English-speaking Protestants of Upper Town and their francophone Catholic neighbours might as well have been living on separate planets. Woods did for Martell what she and her predecessors had done for countless newly arrived women – helped her find a job.

Martell, who built a long and successful career as a public servant in Quebec, remained involved with the organization, joining its board in 1991 as it stood at a crossroads between its anglophone past and the city’s increasingly francophone present, juggling financial challenges. “With other courageous and persevering women, we managed to climb back up that hill,” she remembered.

Inspired by the role of the YWCA in her own life, Martell proposed that the organization put out a book to make its history better known and honour its 150th anniversary, celebrated this year. The book – YWCA Québec: 150 ans au coeur de la vie des femmes – was launched Sept. 4 at the Musée de la civilisation, in tandem with a temporary exhibit in the “Voie Libre” section of the museum, tracing the organization’s history. The book was written by historian Johanne Daigle and published by local publishers Septentrion with support from the Quebec City English-speaking Community Foundation (QCESCF) – initially the Jeffery Hale Foundation (JHF) before the JHF became part of the QCESCF earlier this year. QCESF assistant executive director Julie Sauvageau told the QCT the foundation’s eventual goal is to put out an English version of the book, although no timeline has yet been set for that; the exhibit is in French only.

What would become the YWCA-Québec was founded under the name Women’s Christian Association (WCA) by a group of six anglophone Protestant women under the leadership of Mary Gibbens Cassels McNab. The association turned the Dauphine Redoubt in Artillery Park into a shelter for “deserving” single women with nowhere else to go – efforts to welcome those deemed “undeserving” (read: sex workers or former sex workers) met with fierce opposition from the media and religious establishment and were ultimately dropped in favour of more discreet action.

In 1911, the WCA joined the Canada-wide YWCA movement and began empowering girls and young women through services it still offers today – swimming lessons, physical education and language classes. In the 1940s, it served as a hub for women’s participation in the war effort and for support offered to soldiers’ fiancées, wives and children. After the war, as many women stayed at home to raise large families, the YWCA expanded its offer of courses for older women who wanted to get out of the house and find other outlets for their energy and talents. After moving to the Ave. Holland building in 1968, the organization became renowned for its synchronized swimming program, which trained several elite athletes and at least one world medalist. During the economic crisis of the 1980s, the centre evolved to respond to poverty and psychological distress, and pivoted to serve a mainly francophone clientele as the city’s demographics changed.

“The exhibit invites you to relive the energy of past battles, to ask questions about current issues and to discover what the YWCA Québec is today – a survivor that continues to write her own story for the benefit of women and for society at large,” Julie Lemieux, director general of the Musée de la civilisation de Québec (MCQ) told the crowd assembled at the Sept. 5 launch event.

Visitors to the MCQ can see the YWCA Québec: 150 ans au coeur de la vie des femmes exhibit until Nov. 9. The book can be ordered online directly from Septentrion.

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Women march for equality and an end to poverty

Local Journalism Initiative / The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph / June 11, 2025 / Bread and Roses, Cassandra Kerwin, feminism, gender equality, Quebec City, women's rights

Women march for equality and an end to poverty

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

To mark the 30th anniversary of the historic 1995 Bread and Roses March, women across the province held commemorative events. In Quebec City, women and men assembled beside the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec on June 7 for speeches before marching along Grande Allée to the National Assembly and to the Parc de la Francophonie for celebratory cake and refreshments.

Françoise David played a key role in the 1995 march as president of the Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) and later became an MNA, serving as co-spokesperson for Québec Solidaire. She said she still feels there is much work to be done in the name of gender equality and the fight against poverty, despite the progress made over the last three decades. “On the legal level, in terms of laws, we can’t say that women have taken a step backwards in Quebec,” she said. “The creation of a network of childcare centres was essential for women to be able to work, and recently, given the rise in reports of sexual assault against women, the creation of a specialized court. So, there has been progress for women.”

“It is a good thing to celebrate this milestone now, especially in these international political times,” said social worker Elizabeth Lopez. “We cannot allow the toxic masculinity and patriarchy rising from the south to undo all the work we have done in the past decades. That is why I skipped school to march back then and that is why I am here today.” She added, “It is great to see so many men among us and support[ing] us.”

“It is amazing to see how much has changed in 30 years,” said Amélia O’Connor, a retired social worker and volunteer in a women’s shelter in Montreal. “The demands we made back then still resonate with us today.” According to the FFQ, the marchers’ main de- mands included pay equity, social programs for women with potential jobs, security benefits and unemployment insurance, social housing, and an automatic child support collection system. This year, women walked for equality, social justice and an end to poverty.

Much has improved for women since the initial Bread and Roses March in 1912, a strike of immigrant workers at a textile factory in Lawrence (near Boston), Mass. Over the past century, women in North America have gained the right to vote, hold office, have careers outside the home and keep their jobs after giving birth and while raising young children. The gender salary gap has decreased, abortion has been legalized and shelters for women who have escaped domestic violence have become more accessible, although challenges remain.

Much remains to be done, as demonstrated by the hundreds of women and men present in Quebec City this past weekend. Among them were some of the original 1995 “godmothers” (sponsors and co-organizers) and newly appointed “godmothers,” including freelance journalist and broadcaster Ariane Émond, Sen. Chantal Petitclerc, Indigenous rights activist Michèle Rouleau, artist Marie-Claire Séguin, Radio- Canada anchor Marie-José Turcotte, and former executive director of the Maison d’Haïti and Montreal-based immigrant rights activist Marjorie Villefranche.

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