Her-itage: A Quantitative Analysis of Women’s History in Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada Designations from 2010-2024

Abstract

Over the course of its existence, women have undeniably made many noteworthy contributions to the history of Canada. This research investigates how these contributions are represented in governmental recognition of historical importance. Since their founding, historical regulatory bodies in Canada have used designations like National Historic status to create and perpetuate official narratives and ideals of Canada’s history as a settler colonial project. “Her-itage: a quantitative analysis of women’s history in Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designations from 2010-2024” is an examination of how Parks Canada reflects this historical tendency, and whether women’s history has been considered of heritage significance by the federal government. It takes a mathematical approach to assessing how many officially recognized heritage resources (persons, sites and events) are relevant to women’s history and what percentage of designations as a whole they represent. In particular, it assesses these statistics for designations awarded after 2009 which is the last year for such information has been studied. The data show that the percentage of designations related to women’s history since 2009 is 0.6% lower than the percentage for 2000-2009 and thus that there has been no increase in this millennium. Furthermore, women are significantly more likely to be recognized as historic persons than sites or events in women’s history are to be designated. These results indicate that women’s history and contributions to Canadian history are still underrepresented at least in official assessments of heritage value.

Keywords: history, women’s history, heritage resources, Parks Canada, historic sites, heritage designations