Cold War Comforts: Canadian Women, Child Safety, and Global Insecurity

COLD WAR COMFORTS: CANADIAN WOMEN, CHILD SAFETY, AND GLOBAL INSECURITY Tarah Brookfield Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2012 Cold War Comforts is an engaging study of Canadian women's domestic and international activism in the early Cold War period. Brookfield successfully argues that between the end of the Second World War and the Vietnam War, Canadian women utilized the twin concepts of maternalism (as either literal or symbolic mothers) and internationalism to engage with the policy-making process surrounding children's safety and welfare. In the early post-Second World War years, Cold War tensions created an urgent sense that women needed to prepare for a potential nuclear war, through civil defence and potentially investing in a home fallout shelter. Cold War Comforts examines how, as the nature of the conflict altered and the realities of a potential nuclear conflict became clearer, women's activism shifted from wanting to protect their families from the effects of nuclear war, to demanding, through disarmament and peace activism, that war never happen. In her study, Brookfield divides the subject into two parts: domestic and international, and examines Canadian women's involvement in the United Nations, through such organizations as the United Nations Association and UNICEF, foster parenting plans, activism during the Vietnam War, and international adoption. Brookfield convincingly maintains that their responsibilities and roles as mothers and Canadian citizens spurred these women on and made it possible for them to engage with child safety. Although this study is thoroughly researched and well-executed, there are two relatively minor issues with which Brookfield might have engaged in more depth. In chapter two she uses some American-made civil defence materials, such as Duck and Cover featuring Bert the Turtle, to demonstrate Canadians' engagement with civil defence planning. However, there is little discussion of how American-made materials were used in Canada, nor does she distinguish in a meaningful way between Canadian and American materials. While this may seem a minor issue, her main argument circles around how Canadian women were acting from a keen awareness of their status as Canadian citizens and mothers. Did Canadian women view themselves differently from American? Were civil defence measures in Canada different in any real way from those in the United States? If not, how might that change her overall approach? She does engage with this concept of a unique Canadian identity elsewhere in the book. When discussing Canadian women's reactions to the war in Vietnam she stresses that protest came from frustration that the Canadian government was acting against its international reputation as a peacekeeper. …