This fonds consists of documents relating to the creation of a comprehensive guide to women's movement archives in Canada. The ‘guide’ came about because the CWMA saw the need for a national bilingual guide to women’s groups with records specifically relating to the Women’s Movement. The CWMA undertook a preliminary survey in 1985/1986 and this survey became a pilot project for the final guide. In 1989, the Canadian Research Tools program of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) awarded the CWMA a grant to produce a guide to the records of the women’s movement; the two-year project began in 1990 and was completed in 1992. The detailed Name Index was compiled to provide access to the records of groups known by more than one name. The Subject Index accommodates researchers’ interest in specific women’s issues. Not all women’s groups were included, e.g. charities run by women, also excluded were government departments and councils. The guide is divided into two parts; the first lists records held by archives, the second lists records held by organizations. Arranged hierarchically; national, provincial etc, geographically; east to west, and alphabetically.
It lists archival holdings of about 800 collections representing 650 groups.
The majority of the documents in the fonds are textual, however, there are some microform and computer disks. The documents consist of project plans, funding applications and reports, correspondence, questionnaires, lists of women's groups, and proofs of the final version. This fonds gives an accurate snapshot of records relating to the women's movement in Canada in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
