Book Review: The Sweet Sixteen: The Journey that Inspired the Canadian Women’s Press Club, by Linda Kay

Abstract

The Sweet Sixteen: The Journey that Inspired the Canadian Women's Press Club. Linda Kay. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012. 228 pp. $34.95 hbk.In June 1904, sixteen Canadian journalists boarded a luxurious train car bound for the St. Louis World's Fair. It was a newsworthy trip for more than one reason: they were female and about to report on a global exposition, undoubtedly the biggest story of the year. At the turn of the century, the few dozen women who worked as journalists in Canada typically penned articles on etiquette and social events for women's pages, and they rarely traveled for assignments. That was about to change.In this enjoyable road-trip narrative, Linda Kay, associate professor and chair of Concordia University's Department of Journalism, describes a journey that helped Canada's female journalists achieve professional legitimacy and led to the formation of the Canadian Women's Press Club (CWPC). As the first women's press club in the world to claim a national membership, the CWPC would endure 100 years.But the sixteen women traveling in the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) car could not know any of this. Dressed in the day's fashion of floor-length tweed skirts, shirt- waists, and large-brimmed hats, the women were excited and a little nervous. For some, the assignment marked their first reporting venture. The novices also were awe- struck by the few stars among them, such as Kathleen Blake Coleman of the Mail and Empire, one of Canada's largest newspapers. Known by her readers as Kit Coleman, she had become famous for covering the 1898 Spanish American War from Cuba.CPR sponsored the journalists' ten-day trip. The railway wanted to entice immi- grants to western Canada and thus ensure the transcontinental line it had completed in 1885 would enjoy brisk traffic. Its publicity-savvy officials knew a group of women traveling alone to the World's Fair would garner a great deal of press coverage about Canada and their company, and they were right. The railway's public relations appara- tus, although not a focus of this book, is an interesting side note.The author deftly places the women's stories within the political and social context of Canada at the start of the twentieth century. In 1904, women in Canada did not have the right to vote or hold public office. Married women found it difficult to continue professional careers. Kay shows that the cultural differences of the country's dual language citizenry are reflected in this group of journalists, which was evenly split between English- and French-speakers. …