"Feminism isn't an employment agency for women; it's an alternative way of ordering the social space, in which women are the prototype rather than men. It is based on collaboration rather than competition. As a youngster, I still remember my feeling of joy that one could look at the earth differently. That's feminism; everything is differently oriented. Seeing the same world with different eyes." -- Ursula Franklin

This quote from Ursula Franklin introduces the chapter on the 1970s in my oral history of the women's movement. It most perfectly expressed the idealism of early second wave feminism and Ursula Franklin herself, who lived her life according to these principles until her death at the age of 94 on Friday.

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Just when I thought I couldn't bear one more word of politics after listening to a revolting panel of so-called political strategists on my favourite radio show The Current, I was revived by a smart, diverse, powerful group of people reading the Leap Manifesto in downtown Toronto. 

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 in a wide swath of red, thousands upon thousands of people hit the streets in quiet Quebec City last Saturday with a cacophony of chants, drums and quiet conversations snaking through the tiny ancient streets of the old city emerging into a park. There organizers distributed large, square red construction paper. As one, we raised our voices and our red squares forming a giant thermometer as seen from the sky. A meme instantly appeared on social media under the thermometer: "We are reaching the boiling point, so has our planet." It was a combination of genius and good organizing.

It is traditional on International Women's Day to celebrate the advances we have made as women. As I began my on-again off-again career as a journalist in the 1960s, it is easy to look back and see monumental advances.

Violence against women was epidemic, but it wasn't until December 6, 1989 that the veil covering misogyny was lifted through an act of such fury and hatred it could not be explained any other way. That terrible act of violence allowed many of us to remember, to admit to ourselves or to speak to others about the violence we had suffered at the hands of men.

In that way, the aftermath of the Montreal Massacre 25 years ago had similarities to the unprecedented discussion of sexual assault and sexual harassment unleashed after the Ghomeshi scandal that we are experiencing now.

I first met John Greyson, now in an Egyptian prison, in the 1990s when he called me to ask if I would like to play a red blood corpuscle in his brilliant AIDS musical comedy Zero Patience. The shoot was in the pool of a downtown community centre. When it became clear that we would be in the pool for a few hours, I asked, "John, can I wear my glasses?" He put a finger to his chin, looked a little perplexed and said, "I don't see why a red blood corpuscle can't wear glasses?" Turning to one of his camera people, he asked "do you?" We all burst out laughing.

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Flora MacDonald, a Progressive Conservative elected in 1972, tells a story that illustrates something of what women politicians faced:

"I worked twice as hard as anybody. You had to work hard. I had decided early in my career in the House that I would change the custom that only dresses were suitable, so one day I wore a pantsuit into the House of Commons. It was a beautiful pantsuit. I had bought it in France, and it was good quality. That became a front-page photograph right across Canada.

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