State-Funded Feminism: A Methodology for the History of Public Funding for Canada’s Voluntary Sector

Abstract

Evolving digital tools are opening new avenues of inquiry for historical research. This research note provides a methodology for collecting historical data on government grants to non-governmental organizations. State funding has had a profound impact on the voluntary sector since the 1960s. The women’s movement, in particular, has been deeply impacted by the state’s intervention into the voluntary sector. Using grants data has the potential to provide unique insights into the dynamics between the state and civil society. Among other things, it enables historians to track organizations over time periods and jurisdictions; to document the diversity of organizations in the voluntary sector; to identify new organizations for historical research; and to compare funding trends among organizations or governments by region, time period, and issue area. The methodology presented in this study includes the use of digital tools to collect, process, and analyze grants data from multiple levels of government while sharing some preliminary findings on the impact of state funding on the women’s movement in Canada since the 1960s. The data reveal, among other things, how state funding has fostered the proliferation of voluntary organizations and privileged certain organizations within the movement as well as vast disparities in funding among regions within Canada.