Our Own Agendas: Autobiographical Essays by Women Associated with McGill University

Our Own Agendas is the second collection of essays by McGill women. The first, A Fair Shake, was published a decade ago. The second volume both reflects the current climate of openness and shows that many barriers remain to be challenged. Our Own Agendas makes a lively and enlightening contribution to our understanding of women's experiences and to Canadian social history.

Twenty-eight women - students, professors, administrators, and graduates of McGill University - reflect on their lives. With emotions that range from humour to angst, they discuss the problems they encountered and the achievements they made. Coming from different cultures, environments, professions, and age groups, the authors of these essays have their own agendas and individual styles. Yet amid this diversity they deal with recurring themes that give vivid insights into what it means to be a woman in Canada in the 1990s.

They write about relationships, careers, illness, children, sexuality, sexism, violence, religion, the arts, misfortune, and good luck. Monique Bégin, former minister of Health in Pierre Trudeau's cabinet, recounts her experiences in the male-dominated world of politics. Annie Iserhoff, a Cree teacher who was sent to residential schools as a child, describes her encounters with prejudice. Jane Poulson discloses the pain of going blind during her final year of medical studies and her bitter struggle to triumph over impossible odds.