Beyond Bylines

"Although the essays that make up Beyond Bylines explore remarkably different terrain, from the presuffrage era to the present and from mainstream to alternative print, to radio and film, together they mark major milestones in the progress of women's rights and women's status as media workers. Keeping a tight focus on each unique voice, Freeman reveals the balancing act her subjects maintained as they weighed personal and professional success against the constraints of their social and historical contexts and the demands of the causes they embraced." - Marjory Lang, Langara College, Vancouver
"In this volume, Barbara Freeman explores how a fascinatingly varied group of prominent and lesserknown female journalists in Canada negotiated the tension between "conventional journalism and advocacy" over more than 130 years. Their perspectives ranged from cautious Christian feminism to Marxism-Leninism; the issues they addressed included everything from women's fashion in the 1890s to lesbian sexuality; they worked in mainstream newspapers, public broadcasting, alternative publications, and documentary filmmaking. What unites them is Freeman's sympathetic and deeply informed attention to how they all, in one way or another, sought to advance women's interests while struggling to make room for themselves in the Canadian journalistic landscape." - Gene Allen, Ryerson University, Toronto
"In Beyond Bylines Barbara Freeman introduces scholars and students of history, journalism, communication studies and women's/gender studies to a delightful lineup of feminist foremothers including writers, broadcasters and filmmakers. In seven lively biographical essays spanning more than a century, the reader encounters a cast of diverse women whose media work in print, over the air waves, and on the screen challenged the status quo and advanced women's issues of the day. These essays are sure to spark lively discussion in the classroom and beyond. No doubt those conversations will centre on questions of women and activism, both past and present, but they might also lead to reflection on what comes next as feminists ponder their media and their message." - Linda Ambrose Laurentian University, Sudbury
``In this volume, Barbara Freeman explores how a fascinatingly varied group of prominent and lesser-known female journalists in Canada negotiated the tension between 'conventional journalism and advocacy' over more than 130 years. Their perspectives ranged from cautious Christian feminism to Marxism-Leninism; the issues they addressed included everything from women's fashion in the 1890s to lesbian sexuality; they worked in mainstream newspapers, public broadcasting, alternative publications, and documentary filmmaking. What unites them is Freeman's sympathetic and deeply-informed attention to how they all, in one way or another, sought to advance women's interests while struggling to make room for themselves in the Canadian journalistic landscape.'' -- Gene Allen, Ryerson University -- 201108
``Barbara Freeman's Beyond Bylines: Media Workers and Women's Rights in Canada ... explores the complex role played by Canadian women journalists, broadcasters, and media workers in the struggle for women's rights in Canada. Combining biography and media history, the book painstakingly documents the lives and work of a broad range of feminist media practitioner-activists across the platforms of newspapers, magazines, broadcasting, public relations and documentary filmmaking. The jury praised this book's important contribution to the ongoing project of exposing the rich legacy of feminism and women in the history of Canadian social movements and media.'' -- Jury assessment for the Gertrude J. Robinson award (CCA)
`` Beyond Bylines , as Barbara Freeman notes, is the first book to provide a sustained account of gender struggles and women's roles in Canadian media history (p. 3). Freeman's approach will captivate Canadian readers interested in the growth of media and feminism in our country; on a chapter-by-chapter basis, it should be useful to scholars beyond our borders interested in particular figures, movements, or media forms.... Freeman's book provides a solid starting place for examining women and media in Canada, and she offers it as a generative rather than definitive âway of opening up research in the field and encouraging others to do the same.â... [H]er approach combines biography and discourse analysis within a journalism studies, media, and women's history perspective. This is a rich mix. Her seven chapters avoid well-know activists to craft portraits of lesser-known figures.... In the end, the book can serve as a pull-apart reference for readers interested in particular figures or decades. This pull-apart feature may be particularly useful for scholars outside Canada with limited investment in understanding the historical trajectory of women in our national media. For Canadians, reading the entire volume provides insight into the cultural history of women's advocacy through changing issues and forms of media.'' -- Jaqueline McLeod Rogers -- Feminist Media Studies, 13 (5), November 2013