The Transformation of Gender Roles…

In Keepers of the Culture, Janet Mancini Billson takes us on a journey into the lives of women in seven distinct cultural communities in Canada.

By sharing her field notes as an introduction to each chapter, Billson brings to life over 10,000 miles of travel and eight years of interviewing women from the Arctic to the Pacific and to the heartland of Canada.
                    Inuit woman with baby in “amautik,” Baffin Island, Candian Arctic

There are many conflicts. Hey, you have to have two jobs to pay the rent, because maybe he's out of a job. It's difficult to play that role of housewife, nurturing the children and the husband.

Jamaican woman, Toronto

The Shifting Balance of Power...

We're no longer married to hunters, most of us, but we're still following the patterns of our grandmothers to prepare us for the future, for making decisions. Before, men had more control over the boys. Women had more control over the girls. Now, they work together to support their children.