Margaret Addison

A biography of one of the key figures in the history of the higher education of women in Canada.

O'Grady presents Addison in several different lights: as a woman learning to assert herself in the hitherto male world of university governance; as an administrator dealing with questions of individual freedom and group standards at a time when the permissible limits of behaviour were expanding; as a former Methodist who learned to modify her beliefs while retaining her core Christianity; and as an advocate for more fulfiling lives for women who was forced to deal with questions of co-education, the possibility of gender-neutral studies, and the nature of womanliness. O'Grady clearly shows that Addison wanted to make a difference in the world and did so B her innovations, such as student government and lectures on careers and sex education, were widely copied in other universities. Drawing on archival material and writing in an accessible style, O'Grady captures the flavour of life in Annesley Hall under Addison's regime and uncovers part of the buried mosaic of the lives of Canadian women.