Louise Toupin

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Louise Toupin
Louise Toupin in 2016
NationalityCanadian
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Louise Toupin is a Canadian political scientist and specialist in feminist studies. She was a founding member of the Women's Liberation Front of Quebec (fr) and Éditions du remue-ménage (fr), which were important sites of feminist activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Montreal. She then earned a PhD from the Université du Québec à Montréal, later becoming a lecturer at that same institution. Her research focused on collections and analyses of feminist theory from the recent history of Québec.

Activism and education[edit]

Toupin was born in Champlain, Quebec, Canada in 1946. From 1969 until 1971, she was a member of the Women's Liberation Front of Quebec, which was the first neo-feminist group in Montreal.[1] Members of Toupin's activist group in the Women's Liberation Front activists were briefly imprisoned for protests they staged during the trial process of Lise Balcer, a 21-year-old woman who was linked to the Front de libération du Québec terrorist Paul Rose during the events surrounding the October Crisis.[2] In 1976 she co-founded the Éditions du remue-ménage, a feminist publishing house in Montreal. Since 2000, she has been engaged in advancing the rights of sex workers, and their societal inclusion. In 2011, she co-founded the Alliance féministe solidaire for the rights of sex workers.[3]

Toupin earned her master's degree at the Université de Montréal in 1972. She then earned a PhD at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1994, with a thesis called Mères ou citoyennes? Une critique du discours historique nord-américain (1960-1990) sur le mouvement féministe (1850-1960) (Mothers or citizens? A critique of the historical North-American discourse from 1960-1990 on the feminist movement from 1850-1960).[1] She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.[4]

Academic career[edit]

Toupin spent much of her career as a lecturer at the Université du Québec à Montréal.[5] Toupin published three anthologies grouping together texts by feminist activists. The two volumes of Québécoises deboutte! (Quebec women standing up!), which were co-authored with Véronique O'Leary, contain writings from two major Second-wave feminist groups in Québec: the Front de libération des femmes du Québec and the Women's Centre.[6][7] Similarly, La Pensée féministe au Québec. Anthologie 1900-1985 (Anthology of feminist thought in Québec, 1900-1985), which Toupin co-authored with Micheline Dumont (fr), is a collection of 180 texts from feminist activists.[8] Finally, the anthology Luttes XXX. Inspirations du mouvement international des travailleuses du sexe (XXX struggles: Inspirations from the international sex worker movement), co-authored with Maria-Nengeh Mensah (fr) and Claire Thiboutot (fr), contains 80 contributions from the sex work activist movement.[9] Toupin also wrote the summary document Les courants de pensée féministe (Currents of feminist thought) in 1998.[5]

Toupin has also done substantial work on the concept of recognizing the invisible work which is typically conducted by women, a concept which she elaborated in her essay Le Salaire au travail ménager. Chronique d’une lutte féministe internationale (1972-1977) (Wages for housework: A chronicle of an international feminist struggle from 1972-1977).[10] This essay, published in 2014, traces the early history of the Wages for housework campaign, which was an international movement to make housework a paid occupation spearheaded by the International Feminist Collective.[4]

Toupin also co-edited, with the historian Camille Robert (fr), a work composed of texts that take stock of the invisibility of some work which is traditionally done by women, and how this work is manifested throughout different communities in Quebec.[11]

Toupin's work has been cited, or translated pieces written by her have been published, in English-language press outlets like The New York Times[12] and rabble.ca.[13][14] Toupin's work has also been extensively covered in French-language outlets including La Presse,[15] Le Devoir,[16] the Huffington Post,[17] Elle,[18] and Radio-Canada.[19]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "« Le salaire au travail ménager. Chronique d'une lutte féministe internationale (1972-1977) » : compte rendu" (in French). Histoire Engagée. 13 February 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  2. ^ Péloquin, Marjolaine (2007). En prison pour la cause des femmes (in French). Montréal: Les éditions du remue-ménage. p. 312.
  3. ^ "Alliance féministe solidaire pour les droits des travailleuses(rs) du sexe" (in French). Alliance féministe solidaire pour les droits des travailleuses(rs) du sexe. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  4. ^ a b Toupin, Louise (2018). Wages for Housework: A History of an International Feminist Movement, 1972–77. Translated by Käthe Roth. University of British Columbia Press. p. 9.
  5. ^ a b Jean-Marie, Tremblay (2 February 2005). "Louise Toupin, PhD sciences politiques [Études féministes], " " (1998)". Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  6. ^ Québécoises deboutte ! tome 1 (in French). Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  7. ^ Québécoises deboutte! tome 2 (in French). Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  8. ^ Pensée féministe au Québec, La (in French). Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  9. ^ Luttes XXX. Inspirations du mouvement international des travailleuses du sexe (in French). Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  10. ^ salaire au travail ménager, Le (in French). Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  11. ^ Invisible work (in French). Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  12. ^ Cain Miller, CLaire (23 October 2019). "Stay-at-Home Parents Work Hard. Should They Be Paid?". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  13. ^ Turner, Christina (29 August 2019). "Ten books on work to read for Labour Day". Rabble. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  14. ^ Rose, Jessica (8 November 2018). "Capitalism runs on women's housework". Rabble. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  15. ^ Bergeron, Marie-Andrée (30 December 2019). "L'amour, un piège pour les femmes?". La Presse (in French). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  16. ^ Chartier, Sophie (19 June 2019). ""Derrière chaque travailleur, il y a une femme"". Le Devoir (in French). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  17. ^ Robert, Camille (24 September 2018). "Faire du travail invisible un enjeu politique". Huffington Post (in French). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  18. ^ Herman, Alice; Cauchie, Aurélie (17 January 2020). "Livres: 5 Destins de femmes hors du commun". Elle (in French). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  19. ^ "Québécoises deboutte!, l'intense aventure féministe révolutionnaire du Front de libération des femmes" (in French). Radio-Canada. 24 April 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
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