“Fraternally Yours” : Women’s Role in Montreal’s Prominent Scottish Fraternities, 1870s-2000s

The author points out that the Scottish community in Montreal in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was far from being a homogenous group. The lived experiences, beliefs, identities, socio-economic realities, religions, and approaches to inclusion were markedly different among Montrealers of Scottish ethnicity. This is evident in the fraternal societies in the city. The author explains that a wide range of social, political, and economic factors influenced the creation and sustainment of Scottish fraternal organizations in Montreal. The two dominant fraternal societies in Montreal demonstrating the differences among this community in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were The St. Andrew’s Society and the Sons of Scotland Benevolent Association (S.O.S.B.A.). The author argues that the histories of these groups are distinct, the membership in these communities are clashing, and the role of women in the survival and successes of these groups helped mark them in history. She discusses the way in which the Scots, as a diasporic people, made Canada home, thus suggesting that Montreal was a hotspot for Scottish migrants. The author then aims to position Scottish fraternal societies in Montreal to illuminate modes of gender discrimination, and finally imagines the life of women within and on the periphery of fraternities in Montreal throughout the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries.

Canadian Content: The McGill Undergraduate Journal of Canadian Studies

Vol. 11

22-31

2019

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