Going Public with Women’s History Education: Feminist Museum Design and Youth Historical Consciousness

In this chapter, the authors discuss a national travelling exhibit on women’s history that started in Ontario but has toured other parts of Canada (Waterloo Region Museum: Trailblazing: Women in Canada since 1867). The objective of the exhibit was to create a learning space for feminist consciousness-raising, namely, to empower young people to practice a vision of a feminist world that embraces difference and builds capacity to act upon that understanding in solidarity with others. Through rich exhibit illustrations and a post-design analysis, the chapter offers a discussion of how museums can move beyond additive representations of diverse women and intentionally awaken feminist consciousness through museum exhibit design.