Resisting discrimination

As Agnew observes, there is little Canadian feminist literature, from a minority perspective, on racism in feminist practice. Resisting Discrimination is a ground-breaking book. Focusing on the experiences of women from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, the volume explores the realities of race, class, and gender discrimination in twentieth-century Canada. Agnew uses an integrated approach, adopting methodologies from political science, history, sociology, and women's studies to investigate the history and politics of Asian and black women throughout this century and the exclusion of these women from theory and practice of mainstream feminism. She also looks at the relationship between the state and community-based organizations of immigrant women, and the struggles of these women to provide social services to non-English-speaking working-class women through their community-based organizations. Agnew's views are critical of white feminist theories and practices. Her goal is to sensitize the reader to another perspective and to empower minority women by making them the subject of their own recent history and politics. She seeks to open up the possibility of fuller cooperation among feminists across lines of race and class, and to suggest new lines of development for feminist theories and methodologies.