Households of Faith: Family, Gender, and Community in Canada, 1760-1969 Volume 44

Households of Faith examines a variety of religious traditions with a particular focus on the way in which religious communities define gender identities. The authors explore the boundaries drawn in religious discourse between the private and public, offering a revisionist perspective on the theoretical framework of separate spheres. By analysing gender relations within the matrix of the family, they explore both the conflicts and interdependency of gender roles. The book has a broad scope, extending from a consideration of church ritual in New France, to demographic analyses of New Brunswick and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, to the intersection of gender and ethnicity, the construction of family in Aboriginal communities, and the changing definitions of sex roles and the family itself among both clergy and laypeople.