The Margaret Laurence Lecture is hosted each year by the Gender & Women Studies Department to honour renowed Canadian author, former Trent chancellor, and activist Margaret Laurence by exploring issues of peace, ecology, and feminism.
Previous lecturers include Naomi Klein, Roberta Jamison, and Ursula Franklin. This year's lecturer was Rosemary Ganley, retired Peterborough teacher, journalist, and co-founder of Jamaican Self-Help. In 1985 Ganley was awarded the YWCA Woman of the Year award, presented by her friend Margaret Laurence.
Ganley is a Catholic feminist and former editor of the progressive, lay-edited Catholic New Times and her lecture addressed the perceived contradiction of women of faith who are working for women's equality while remaining within their faith traditions. Ganley pointed to first-wave feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton who, in 1848, declared the root of women's oppression laid in the patriarchal religions and encouraged women to examine and re-interpret the Bible with an eye to women's emancipation.
Ganley went on to profile the work of 18 women from the three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) working to challenge this patriarchal stranglehold over religious institutions and theologies, with negative impacts for women and girls. Among them were radical nuns, rabbis, professors, and theologians who argue that the main tenets of their faith support equality and social justice and that the greatest sins lie in exploitation and domination. While women doing this work in secular democracies face harsh censure from the institutions they challenge, Ganley argued that it is especially important to support women around the world who are putting their lives at risk to challenge oppression. Linking these ideas back to the life and work of Laurence, Ganley argued that the arts: fiction, poetry, and music, are one of the best places to explore issues of faith and justice and to find inspiration.
Rosemary Ganley has taught courses on feminist theology at both the academic and popular level and those who want a copy of the lecture or a list for further reading are encouraged to get in touch with her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
