| Reviews / Comptes Rendus | Labour/Le Travail, 54

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Maureen G. Reed, Taking Stands: Gender and the Sustainability of Rural Communities (Vancouver: UBC Press 2003)

TAKING STANDS is a thought-provoking book of great interest to researchers, activists, and policy makers. Focusing on women's political reactions to forest conservation efforts in a northern Vancouver Island logging community, Reed exposes the multiplicity of women's political positions, embedded-ness of these positions in women's diverse social and economic circumstances, and the unifying effect of moral confrontations between these women and environmental non-governmental organizations. She also exemplifies how forestry women's anti-conservationist stands are shaped by the lack of viable alternatives to logging in forestry- dependent communities.

Reed challenges the dichotomy between pro- and anti-environmentalists and the conflation of pro-logging stands with conservative politics. She demonstrates that women who supported forestry were not opposed to environmental preservation. In fact, they participated in a variety of environmental conservation community projects. Reed also illustrates that the women's strong support for forestry was related only in part to their commitment to their partners and other household members employed in the industry. She suggests that to a large extent, women's attachment to forestry came from their own labour experiences in the logging industry and to their involvement in the broader forestry community.

Reed does not idealize the logging industry or the community that women in her study tried to preserve. She discusses disadvantages women faced in a forest community, related to their ghettoization in the labour force, the limited availability of daycare, and various forms of sexism at work and in the larger community. The women interviewed by Reed were fully aware of these disadvantages as well as others, including poor roads, occupational dangers that logging posed to their male partners and household members, lack of educational opportunities, shortage of social services, and lack of political clout. However, despite their understanding of challenges associated with living in a rural resource community, forestry women strongly opposed the provincial government's land use policy and the "wilderness preservation" rhetoric of the environmental non-governmental organizations. Reed suggests that to a large extent, the fear of losing their rural identities, voices, and respect shaped their political positions.

Reed also challenges the theoretical perspectives that depict rural workers' wives either as passive "victims" or "victors" over their destiny. Finding both positions problematic, Reed presents an alternative approach which emphasizes the multiplicity of women's perspectives. Based on the analysis of 50 in-depth interviews and 3 focus groups, Reed convincingly demonstrates how environmental perspectives and attitudes are embedded within broader social, political, and economic conditions. She relates women's activism towards land use policies to employment in forestry, household dynamics, gender identities, and lifestyles. Reed illustrates that women's identities arose from multiple positions in the labour market, community, and household, and differing interpretations of their circumstances. Women's activism and political views were embedded in these positions and identities. Women interviewed by Reed represented a multiplicity of political positions. Reed characterizes their activism as heterogeneous and contingent, complex, contradictory, and embedded in the social circumstances. Women's activism was continuously shaped and reshaped by the rhetorics and activism of their partners, coworkers, community members, policy-makers, academics, and other women.

Reed demonstrates that despite the multiplicity of political views and positions among the forestry community women, they had a united voice during their confrontation with the environmental non-governmental organizations at the Clayoquot Sound Peace Camp. Reed contends that variations in women's positions towards forestry and land use policies were overcome by the need for solidarity in opposition to both official conservation policy and environmental organizations. All women subscribed to the idea of the "working forest" that is "farmed," and not "wild." Stereotyping and moral condemnation used both by environmental organizations and rural residents solidified identities on both sides of the political divide and reinforced perceptions of irreconcilable differences.

Reed is critical of the ecofeminists who emphasize the "natural" link between women and the environment. She positions her research in "feminist environmentalism" which locates women's views on environmental protection in the intersection of social relations, gender identities, and public policy.

Reed questions environmentalism which protects the "wilderness" at the expense of the lifestyles, identities, and economic needs of the resident communities. She advocates a holistic understanding of the environment in which concern for people, their communities, and their environments are to be considered equally and simultaneously.

Reed criticizes state "transition" policies for their failure to address women's changing needs. She points out that most efforts to assist communities during transition, such as retraining and employment adjustment programs, targeted male workers. While most assistance programs attempted to compensate for jobs lost in the harvesting and processing sectors, where male workers predominated, losses in jobs in support industries and community services, staffed predominantly by women, were neglected by social planners. Reed also points out that the transition policies failed to address communities' social needs. She points out that while unemployment and economic restructuring created new demands on social services, including health services, counselling, youth programs, education, and affordable housing, these services were discontinued by forest companies and/or governments. Reed attributes these problems to deficiencies in the planning process. First, she questions criteria for participation in the consultation process established by the Vancouver Island planners. Only organizations with strong regional or corporate networks, such as private sector unions, business corporations, professional associations, and better organized environmental organizations were invited to participate in the planning process, while public sector unions, representing mostly women, were excluded. Second, Reed points out that those who were invited to represent forestry communities lacked bargaining power and influence. The agenda and the negotiating process were firmly controlled by state organizations.

Reed does not merely present criticisms; she also offers solutions. Reed calls for participatory citizenship which opens possibilities for citizens to participate in policy- planning processes by exchanging values and experiences and discussing desired futures. She also recommends a "values"-based, rather than "interest"-based, model to ensure that the values and concerns identified by community members, and not the interests articulated by sectors or coalitions, are well represented. Finally, she underscores that feminist research, with its emphasis on complexity, multiplicity, and embedded-ness of people's political positions, can contribute to building an environmental movement that would be open to diverse views. Taking Stands makes a significant contribution to feminist, environmental, rural, social justice, and social planning studies.


Tanya Basok University of Windsor

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