Ashleigh Androsoff

Ashleigh Androsoff. “The Trouble with Teamwork: Doukhobor Women’s Plow Pulling in Western Canada, 1899”. Canadian Historical Review, 100(4), 540–563.

With her insightful analysis of the images of Doukhobor women performing heavy physical labour normally assigned to men or draft animals, Dr. Androsoff demonstrates how these images disrupted the traditional narratives of settler experiences in the colonial West at a time when first-wave feminists were arguing for improvements to women’s rights in Canada. Enriching our understandings of western history, she explores the motivations for the women to engage in this physically demanding “masculine” work, proving that they were resourceful and good agriculturalists. In so doing, Dr. Androsoff offers a unique contribution to the history of gender, culture and settler communities in western Canada.