85 Years Of Letters From Our Editors
Editor's letters
March 1928, Chatelaine's first-ever editor's letter
“The Chatelaine Sets a Lamp in her Window”
It is only a little while since the thought of a magazine for the women of Canada came into being, and this is but its first issue – yet, in the few months between its announcement and its publication, it has “cast a far beam.”
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With her great work before her, and with an encouraging portion already begun, the Chatelaine commends her first issue to the women of Canada. Already conscious of your own high ideals for a Canadian women’s magazine, and confident of your interest, our hope is that from the very beginning it may arise to your expectations.If the light of the Chatelaine’s lamp, when it shall have fallen your way, has brought more meaning into the every-day world about you, helped you to find better methods in any activity of your home or life, then she will have accomplished the purpose for which she came into being – to serve the Canadian woman in her every interest and need.
Anne Elizabeth Wilson, Chatelaine’s first editor in chief
April 1932
“The Editor’s Own Page”
I like this month of April better than any in the cycle of the year – there’s so much of promise in the days as they flow by. And everyone knows that, in the majority of cases, promise is more enchanting than fulfillment.
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There remains just a moment to tell you that L.M. Montgomery, of universal popularity, will be with us next month, so will Anne Elizabeth Wilson, and R.V. Gery, and many others whose work you know well. Golden tulips will blossom on the cover, and throughout the pages we’re hoping to bring a vital interest, definite information, actual help in your homemaking problems, and the kind of entertainment that will make you welcome the Chatelaine month by month with real eagerness. It’s a magazine ideal that’s worth striving for!
Byrne Hope Sanders, editor in chief
March 1947
“Race hatred . . . and you”
Race hatreds explode suddenly. We read of them in our newspapers. The ensuing tragedy may be a massacre in Europe, or a lynching in the States. In may be that of a small boy in an alien race turned off a public rink in our own hometown. When we read of these things, most of us shake our heads vaguely. It’s all too bad, of course, but it’s got nothing to do with us. Are we sure it hasn’t?
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There’s so much we can do in every cycle of our life. Ourselves first: What do we really think? What degree of tolerance have we? Our families: Have we ever asked children of other nationalities to come to our homes? Are we thoughtlessly building prejudices through careless conversation? Our clubs and our communities: Are we studying the best thinking of the day on the problem? Do we know what other towns and countries are doing to increase racial understanding? Are our community committees really representative of the people?The nations of the world can never be truly united until they understand and trust one another. They can only do that working through the communities of the world. That means your hometown. And you.
Byrne Hope Sanders, editor in chief
June 1952
There was a letter from the teacher the other day with my twelve-year-old’s report card, which showed a definite down-slant in grades.“Don’t be alarmed,” it read. “This month your son was helping a DP boy from Europe who just came into class. Next month someone else will take him on.“What Donald lost in arithmetic and spelling he will make up in a week or so. What he gained in international understanding he will never forget.”
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I like to think of schoolrooms all over Canada with one another of our children taking on new boys and girls as a privileged responsibility. And absorbing, with the instinctive sensitivity children have, an understanding and appreciation of fine, skilled peoples who have been uprooted from their old lives elsewhere, and found a homing here.Perhaps as adults we learn something, too, from the quick integration of their children and ours.
Lotta Dempsey, editor in chief
January 1960
“Jury Duty: do women who avoid it shirk a special responsibility?”
Of one hundred and thirty seemingly eligible women who were called for jury duty in Toronto last year, ninety-four claimed exemption. The fact that many women shirk their responsibilities for jury duty is a typical example of women trying to have their cake and eat it, too. We want all the privileges of complete equality with men, such as equal pay for equal work, and yet we take the easy way out when being equal is not convenient.
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We can’t expect to behave as full-fledged citizens only when it is comfortable and fits in with our plans.
Doris Anderson, editor in chief
September 1977, Doris Anderson's last editor's letter
“To my readers: a fond farewell”
When I took over in 1959 as editor, women in politics, medicine, law and business were as rare as whooping cranes. Less than one percent of the House of Commons, two percent of the legal profession, five percent of doctors were women. Hardly any women were enrolled in business schools, nor did any women sit on any stock exchange, and very few appeared on boards of most corporations. And nobody, particularly women, felt the fact that half the population was almost powerless as well as voiceless and invisible was strange at all. Nor did they feel it wrong that they be paid less for doing the same job as men, or that husbands had to cosign loans at a bank or give their endorsement for a woman to take out even a library card in her own name back in the 1960s. Today all that has changed. Chatelaine was a voice that spoke out about these things long before the large U.S. magazines began to write about them - and I’m proud of that.
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But what I will miss is that indefinable contact with you, our readers, from all over Canada. You’ve poured out to me in letters, often six and seven pages long, your problems and reactions to articles. You obviously felt this magazine was your friend and advocate – and you have scolded us, praised us, and above all, let us know you cared. Thank you for that trust and intense concern.
Doris Anderson, editor in chief
May 1989
“The mommy track: realistic or regressive?”
The “mommy track” or part-time track, allows management and professional women to step off the fast track to spend more time with their children. But even among women, there is no consensus that according women special treatment is a good or bad thing.
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One thing’s sure: there’s never been a dull moment in our evolution. In the ’60s, there was Betty Friedan’s call to arms urging housewives to swap self-sacrifice for self-realization. In the ’70s, women poured into the workplace but, toward the end of the decade, rediscovered motherhood and tried to juggle both. Now, in the late ’80s, pooped-out super-women are looking for equilibrium in their lives. Is our place at home, in the workplace, or both? Should we be treated equally or, because of our biology, differently? The controversy rages on.
Mildred Istona, editor in chief
February 1995, Rona Maynard's first editor's letter
“Canada’s biggest kitchen table”
The magazine you hold in your hand is the biggest kitchen table in Canada – the monthly meeting place for one in four English-speaking women. For 66 years, we’ve been chronicling both women’s epic breakthroughs in public life and their intimate concerns as daughters, lovers and mothers.Now, it’s my turn to pour the coffee. As Chatelaine’s new editor, I’ll protect our tradition of spirited and wide-ranging dialog.
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In the five-year countdown to the next century, Chatelaine’s kitchen table will be a forum on the future – and your monitor of changes that are shaking up our workplaces, our schools, our homes our health care system, perhaps even Canada as we know it. We’ll keep you connected so that you can determine where you stand and what to do about it.Pull up a chair. It’s going to be a rich conversation.
Rona Maynard, editor in chief
March 2005
In the world of magazines, we’re always working ahead. So, while this is our March issue, we were finalizing it in the first weeks of January, just as the Asian tsunami and its aftermath dominated the news – and conversations – everywhere. My plan had been to write this editorial about the joy of colour – how the right shades can lift your mood and spirit, especially during this dreary “winter’s not quite over, spring seems weeks away” time of year. But now, that just doesn’t feel right.
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Cynics doubt our care will extend beyond those first few urgent weeks [in]. But I think they’re wrong. In the faces of children donating allowances, teenagers leading school fundraising efforts and adults signing cheques, I see commitment. I don’t think any of us want our tears to be drops in the ocean. Because together I think we can turn the tide.
Kim Pittaway, editor in chief
June 2012
“Pay it Forward”
Over the years, the topic of equality (and inequality) has been much analyzed, lamented and discussed on Chatelaine’s pages. And I often think about the debt of gratitude our generation owes to our mothers and grandmothers for ensuring that few of us question our ability to tackle any challenge, whether it be commanding the boardroom of Canada’s national television network or taking charge of the barbeque in the backyard.I find myself reflecting on the rights and freedoms we North American women now take for granted (health care, voting, education – over 60 percent of university graduates are female). And while mothers in places like Mali are unable to feed their children – with limited resources no matter how hard they work and no platform to lobby for basic human rights – I think we have a wonderful opportunity to do for them what previous generations have done for us.
Jane Francisco, editor in chief
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