Physical Therapy Comes to British Columbia, Canada: Modernity, Movement, and the Press for the Professional Regulation of Purposive Exercise in the Early 20^th Century.

This article examines the early development of physical therapy as a professional field in British Columbia during the early twentieth century, highlighting its roots in Pehr Henrik Ling’s nineteenth-century work at Sweden’s Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics (RCIG). It traces the migration of Ling-trained female gymnasts and physiotherapists to Canada and their pivotal role in rehabilitating wounded soldiers after World War I, initially in Ontario and Quebec and later in British Columbia. The article emphasizes how female physiotherapists sought to establish a female-dominated profession while aligning closely with the male-dominated medical establishment, resulting in complex gendered dynamics where women gained access to the field but ceded professional control to physicians. It also discusses the broader context of scientific advances in movement, wartime demands, and professional boundary work that shaped physiotherapy’s emergence and gradual professionalization in Canada.