Freeman, Barbara M.

Persona

Freeman, Barbara M.

Barbara M. Freeman holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree and a Master of Arts in Canadian Studies from Carleton University. She graduated with a Ph.D. in History from Concordia University in Montreal. She began teaching at Carleton University in Ottawa in 1980 after a career in broadcast journalism. As an adjunct research professor of journalism at Carleton University, her key research areas were communications history, and gender and diversity issues in the media in the School of Journalism and Communication. She is the author of Beyond Bylines: Media Workers and Women’s Rights in Canada (2011), The Satellite Sex: The Media and Women’s Issues in English Canada, 1966-1971 (2001), and of Kit’s Kingdom: the Journalism of Kathleen Blake Colema (1989). In these essays, she examines historical cases of women who worked in print and broadcast media and were committed activists as well. Her case studies illustrate how the language and foci of women’s rights have changed from the late 19th century until the year 2000 as her subjects sought equality in education, suffrage, fair employment practices, reproductive and sexual freedom, and the rights of indigenous women. She has also published articles in several anthologies and journals. She is a founding and executive member of the Media and Communication History Committee and a member of the Canadian Committee on Women’s History.