Review of \u3ci\u3eStanding on New Ground: Women in Alberta\u3c/i\u3e Edited by Catherine A. Cavanaugh and Randi R. Warne

This intriguing collection of accessible essays focuses largely on aspects of the relationship that Alberta women have had with public institutions, both formal and informal, from 1904 to the present. While all the essays cover worthwhile topics, some have been developed in only rudimentary fashion, while others are comprehensive and contain sophisticated analyses. Among the articles dealing with women\u27s voluntary activities, the highlight is an essay by Michael Owen on the Methodist and United Church Women\u27s Missionary Society\u27s missions to Ukrainians in eastern Alberta between 1904 and 1940. Like many missionaries elsewhere, these women had their greatest successes, not in conversions, but in offering medical and educational services to people who lived in areas not yet covered by public institutions or by organizations run by their own ethnic communities. Owen\u27s description of the WMS residential schools for Ukrainian girls opens the door for some interesting comparisons to residential schools for Native children in Canada