Louise Toupin

Toupin was born in Champlain, Quebec, Canada in 1946. From 1969 until 1971, she was a member of the Women's Liberation Front of Quebec, which was the first neo-feminist group in Montreal.^[1] Members of Toupin's activist group in the Women's Liberation Front activists were briefly imprisoned for protests they staged during the trial process of Lise Balcer, a 21-year-old woman who was linked to the Front de libération du Québec terrorist Paul Rose during the events surrounding the October Crisis.^[2] In 1976 she co-founded the Éditions du remue-ménage, a feminist publishing house in Montreal. Since 2000, she has been engaged in advancing the rights of sex workers, and their societal inclusion. In 2011, she co-founded the Alliance féministe solidaire for the rights of sex workers.^[3]

Toupin earned her master's degree at the Université de Montréal in 1972. She then earned a PhD at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1994, with a thesis called Mères ou citoyennes? Une critique du discours historique nord-américain (1960-1990) sur le mouvement féministe (1850-1960) (Mothers or citizens? A critique of the historical North-American discourse from 1960-1990 on the feminist movement from 1850-1960).^[1] She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.^[4]

Toupin spent much of her career as a lecturer at the Université du Québec à Montréal.^[5] Toupin published three anthologies grouping together texts by feminist activists. The two volumes of Québécoises deboutte! (Quebec women standing up!), which were co-authored with Véronique O'Leary, contain writings from two major Second-wave feminist groups in Québec: the Front de libération des femmes du Québec and the Women's Centre.^[6][7] Similarly, La Pensée féministe au Québec. Anthologie 1900-1985 (Anthology of feminist thought in Québec, 1900-1985), which Toupin co-authored with Micheline Dumont, is a collection of 180 texts from feminist activists.^[8] Finally, the anthology Luttes XXX. Inspirations du mouvement international des travailleuses du sexe (XXX struggles: Inspirations from the international sex worker movement), co-authored with Maria-Nengeh Mensah (fr) and Claire Thiboutot (fr), contains 80 contributions from the sex work activist movement.^[9] Toupin also wrote the summary document Les courants de pensée féministe (Currents of feminist thought) in 1998.^[5]

Toupin has also done substantial work on the concept of recognizing the invisible work which is typically conducted by women, a concept which she elaborated in her essay Le Salaire au travail ménager. Chronique d’une lutte féministe internationale (1972-1977) (Wages for housework: A chronicle of an international feminist struggle from 1972-1977).^[10] This essay, published in 2014, traces the early history of the Wages for housework campaign, which was an international movement to make housework a paid occupation spearheaded by the International Feminist Collective.^[4]

Toupin also co-edited, with the historian Camille Robert (fr), a work composed of texts that take stock of the invisibility of some work which is traditionally done by women, and how this work is manifested throughout different communities in Quebec.^[11]

Toupin's work has been cited, or translated pieces written by her have been published, in English-language press outlets like The New York Times^[12] and rabble.ca.^[13][14] Toupin's work has also been extensively covered in French-language outlets including La Presse,^[15] Le Devoir,^[16] the Huffington Post,^[17] Elle,^[18] and Radio-Canada.^[19]