Leggatt, Judith

English

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well as female workers. In addition, it offers a wider (but highly polarized) range of incomes and benefit packages. Nevertheless, Vosko argues, the THI retains a markedly "feminized" character. The casualization of employment typical of this sector "means that more forms of employment resemble 'women's work,' not only the types of employment relationships that women are normally confined to and/or the type of employment contracts to which they are often subject...but also the inferior conditions of employment that women frequently face related to both their presumed role in social reproduction and their 'presumed' status as 'secondary' breadwinners" (162). The THI employment form, its terms and conditions, are richly documented in chapters four and five. In chapter seven, moreover, Vosko shows how the THI has become implicated in the broader shift from the "welfare" to the "workfare" state (Peel municipality's " Workfirst" program, launched under the Harris government's Ontario Works Act). These developments are set in relation to the global onslaught against the Keynesian-Welfare form of state. Yet Vosko is clear in her rejection of Margaret Thatcher's dictum, "There is No Alternative." Just as countries varied in response to earlier efforts by the ILO to establish that "labour is not a commodity," so too in the era of "globalization" have their responses to the casualization of labour differed. She documents the way a variety of the Organization For Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries -and, within Canada, the province of Quebec - have sought to mitigate this trend. It is thus not surprising that her conclusion tackles the question of "what is to be done" head on. Here Vosko is less concerned with reforms to social insurance systems that would counter (rather than exacerbate, as Canada's Employment Insurance Act has done) the spread of precarious work, than with new forms of unionization. This is certainly consistent with a theoretical thread that runs through the book - the need to assert, against the grain of capitalism, that "labour is not a commodity." Yet it also reflects her underlying understanding that the most important form of empowerment comes from the ability to organize and act collectively. This book thus offers a richly textured feminist and socialist analysis of a very important set of developments. It is a superb example of contemporary political economy, locating an apparently "new" trend in a broader historical perspective, deploying a range of methodological tools to probe its contemporary functioning, and, through careful policy analysis, reminding us that the rapid expansion of the THI is not the "natural" outcome of "globalization" or "postindustrialism." Rather it results from (reversible) political decisions. Vosko also begins to show us how to do good political economy in an era when the "national" is no longer the primary political locus -when the local and the global have gained a new prominence. Her approach is exemplary in that it works simultaneously at the supranational (ILO), comparative national, provincial and local levels. REFERENCES Good Jobs, Bad Jobs : Employment in the Service Economy: a Statement. Ottawa: The Council, 1990. Rianne Mahon Carleton University A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood. K i m Anderson. Toronto: Second Story Press, 2000; bibliography; reference list/biographies; 320 pages; I S B N 1-896764-27-4; $19.95. In A Recognition of Being, Kim Anderson explores the gender traditions of various First Nations, explains how these female-centered or gender-balanced societies became patriarchal as a result of colonization, and suggests approaches to reconstructing a Native female identity for the twenty-first century. Her text builds on a body of writing that includes Laguna writer Paula Gunn Allen's The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Tradition and Metis writer Janice Acoose's Iskwewak. Kah'Ki Yaw Ni Wahkomakanak: Neither Indian Princesses nor Easy Squaws. Anderson takes the realities described by such texts as a framework and provides a model for the rebuilding of an indigenous female identity, one that takes both past traditions and contemporary practices into account. In her first chapter, Anderson explains who she is and why she has chosen to write this book; throughout the rest of the text her voice mediates between other voices, both written and oral, Native and non-Native. Although she has a useful and extensive bibliography that she uses judiciously throughout her text, her main sources are not books but people. The text is based on interviews with forty Native women from across Canada, and the conclusion is framed as a dialogue between A n d e r s o n and B o n i t a L a w r e n c e , a Mi'kmaq/European woman who teaches Women's Studies at Queen's University. Anderson weaves together these women's stories and experiences to provide both compelling illustrations and a feeling of community. The fact that all are community leaders - including writers, artists, educators, administrators, matriarchs, healers and elders -allows Anderson to present them as positive role models to counteract the stereotypes against which they are fighting. The women come from a variety of First Nations and thus their stories prevent the homogenization of "Native womanhood" that is always a danger in such texts; at the same time, the similarities between their experiences do point the way to possible pan-Native connections. Anderson's text is specifically written for an indigenous female audience, to help them recognize their own being, and for this audience it is excellent and highly recommended. The text's reconstruction of Native womanhood could also lead non-Native feminists to re-cast feminist theory, although it is sometimes difficult for the Western feminist reader to accept what can seem to the outsider as essentialist arguments, ones that extol the importance of motherhood, menstruation, and wearing skirts. Anderson is, however, aware of these problems, and makes sure to complicate her discussion by showing disagreement among her sources. A Recognition of Being is a useful addition to a growing body of theoretical texts exploring Native female identity, and a good starting point for those looking at this theory for the first time. Judith Leggatt Lakehead University Designing Women: Gender and the Architectural Profession. Annmarie Adams and Peta Tancred. Toronto, Ont: University o f Toronto Press, 2000; photographs, tables, appendices; 190 pages; I S B N 0-8020-4417-4 (cloth) 0-8020-8219-X (paper); $19.95. Why is the title for this book Designing Women, as opposed to Canadian Women Architects, for example? Well, as soon as one dives into this most interesting book one discovers (along with the authors) that of the women who have left the profession of architecture proper, many have moved into planning, architectural journalism, teaching and even real estate. This has forced a redefinition of "the architect" and is, perhaps, one of the intriguing aspects of the book: how these professional women have succeeded in working in and around the restrictions of the profession. It came as a great relief to me that the book is not the story of marginalization of women in architecture; on the contrary, it is the story of innovation and success in finding ways to deal with the masculinist world of architecture. Because the book is a collaboration between an historian of architecture (Adams), and a sociologist (Tancred), the subject of architecture is brought out from the confines of architectural history and makes this study comparable to other work done on professional women and women in the work force. The contribution of the social sciences brings a rigour to the study, which is extremely valuable. Unfortunately, it also makes the writing a little heavy-handed in places. The premise of the book is a study of all women who have remained in the shades of history, as opposed to the singling out of some of the great women architects and the telling of their stories as heroes. This is admirable and should be commended. It results in a very thorough study of women in the architectural profession which I understand through my conversations with Dr. Adams has now inspired similar studies in other countries such as Australia. For me, one of the most interesting chapters was dedicated to the representation of women in the RAIC journal (the journal distributed to members of the profession) both in advertisements and in the types of buildings designed by women that are reviewed in the 

A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood, Kim Anderso

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A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood, Kim Anderso

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