Chapter 12

New Beginnings and
National Initiatives

CFUW understands the importance of adherence to “the rule of law.” Indeed, it underpins the organization’s belief in equity and confidence in the democratic system. It is fundamental to its belief in human rights and continuing pursuit of positive ways to practise fair and just decision making.

—Doris Mae Oulton

In the early part of this decade, the federation continued to work through coalition groups and the opposition parties. In 2010, it joined protests against the Harper government’s maternal health initiative that was announced in conjunction with Canada hosting the 2011 Group of Eight (G8) conference of industrialized nations. In an effort to reverse membership losses and to keep up with modern business trends, CFUW entered into a phase of re-branding with annual reports and mission statements. A New Beginnings Survey recognized the roles of club-level advocacy and the federation launched national initiatives on violence, child care, and Indigenous peoples. The update of a 1992 survey of women at Canadian universities highlighted the issue of sexual assault in post-secondary institutions in Canada.

At the national office, Robin Jackson took over as executive director from retiring Susan Russell in 2011. Jackson, a former CFUW member with an honours BA in French literature from Carleton University and a bachelor’s degree in library and information science (BLS) from the University of Ottawa, had been executive director of the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund and worked with both the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission and Department of Canadian Heritage. At CFUW, Jackson reviewed office procedures, guidelines, and practices, and ran the office with the aid of Betty Dunlop on fellowships, and, at the time of writing, Rachel Deneault, member services, and Yasmin Strautins, advocacy. Neither finances nor membership numbers had improved and, as will be discussed in Chapter 14, the transformation of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) into Graduate Women International (GWI) caused division within the membership. Still, the 2015 election of a Liberal government under Justin Trudeau, and his announcement of a gender-balanced cabinet, brought renewed optimism.

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The last major revision to the CFUW constitution occurred in 2014 and took three AGMs to be adopted. CFUW is an organization that takes governance seriously and pays strict attention to its constitution, which is a standing agenda item at every annual general meeting (AGM). Amendments to the constitution are circulated to affiliated clubs before voting takes place at an AGM, where they are vigorously debated. Changes require a two-thirds majority on the floor. CFUW governance manuals carefully outline the organizational structure, including the committees, terms of reference, and reporting relationships. AGM business meetings are governed by standing rules, which are adopted (and can be amended) at each AGM where there is always a parliamentarian present and Robert’s Rules of Order are carefully observed. Club representatives are accredited at AGM registration and receive voting cards (now electronic devices) based on the number of members in their club—every club receives a minimum of one vote. Past presidents and regional directors also receive one vote, as do current board members.1 CFUW policy, based on resolutions that are submitted and confirmed according to established governance protocols, ensures CFUW’s accountability to and direction by the affiliated clubs.

Resolutions must be submitted for consideration according to strict timelines, are then circulated to clubs, and refinements are negotiated. The proposing club has the final say about what changes they will accept to the resolution that is presented on the floor of the AGM. It is generally a collegial progression. When a club does not accept a change, there can be (and often are) amendments made to the resolution from the floor. Resolutions are first discussed at the club membership level, where members instruct their delegates how to vote at the AGM; the next step is a review process2; resolutions are then presented at a workshop before they go to the floor at an AGM; and finally they are put forward on the floor itself where each resolution is debated. Again, there is a strict process for presenting and debating resolutions and a two-thirds majority vote is required for a resolution to pass. Resolutions are sometimes sent back to a club for further work before they can be reconsidered at the next AGM. When a resolution is adopted, it becomes CFUW policy and the following year it becomes the primary focus of the federation’s advocacy activities. After the AGM, the national office circulates an advocacy plan—that includes components such as template letters to governments and suggestions for additional actions—to help clubs with their local advocacy efforts. Even the advocacy tasks are governed by protocols—correspondence with the federal government is done by the national organization; overtures to provincial governments are carried out by the regional bodies (sometimes in conjunction with the national organization); and clubs are responsible for approaches to local political officials. This is not a hard and fast delineation since many clubs have access to federal and provincial politicians. In these cases, the advocacy is done cooperatively so that everyone is kept in the loop. There are protocols, however, including those governing interactions with international bodies. Resolutions going to GWI, for example, must first be passed at a CFUW AGM and then adapted as necessary for application to other National Federation Affiliates (NFA).3

• • • • • • • • •

Brenda Margaret Wallace, the first president of this decade, served from 2010 to 2012 and was one the few CFUW presidents who actually campaigned for election—there were two capable candidates running that term. Wallace continued with the same theme as the previous biennial, “The Right to Speak, The Responsibility to Act,” because it addressed her own concerns. Born in Regina, she was raised in a family that valued education, sports, and music, and where her accomplished mother provided a strong role model. She taught for three years in Germany with the Department of National Defence and after she returned to Canada, she joined CFUW Regina because she valued the organization’s contributions to education.4 As noted, committees on communications and governance guided CFUW during her term to a new structure that brought the constitution and bylaws up to date in compliance with federal changes to the legislation governing non-profits. The organization also introduced the category of associate membership, which eliminated the previous two-tiered membership and recognized graduates and non-graduates as equal members.5 An increase in fees/dues6 and a reduction in the number of board members helped the organization cope with rising costs, and CFUW examined alternate methods of governance for clubs that were experiencing leadership problems.

In 2010, Doris Mae Oulton, then director of the Status of Women Committee, noted that it had been a difficult year. The Canadian women’s ski jumping team, unlike the men’s team, had been excluded from competition at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, despite an appeal by women’s groups on the basis of gender discrimination to the Supreme Court of Canada. The court ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to enforce the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on the International Olympic Committee.7 CFUW also protested the closure of an advisory council on the status of women in New Brunswick, with press conferences, rallies, online petitions, Facebook pages, and blogs. The opposition brought in a motion to have it reinstated and CFUW members were interviewed on TV and radio, but nothing would change the government’s mind.8

For the most part, government doors still remained closed. Teri Shaw, vice president of advocacy from 2010 to 2016,9 never even went to a government briefing—she lived in the Toronto area and the government kept cancelling meetings in Ottawa at the last minute. Instead, she relied on Tara Fischer, the staff advocacy person at that time. Shaw had a master of library science degree from McGill and had run the department of library and cultural services in a small city near Montréal. She had experience with advocacy at the Ontario Council, dating back to 2000, and at the national level.10 Shaw recalls two approaches to the changed political climate during the time of the Harper government. First, CFUW ramped up previous efforts to seek coalitions and affiliations with other women’s groups; this was made possible by a motion to remove previous restrictions on CFUW affiliation. It joined the Voices Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, another organization that was founded in response to unprecedented federal funding cuts targeting progressive organizations.11 The Ad Hoc Coalition on Women’s Equality and Human Rights, despite some help from the Canadian Labour Congress, folded in 2011 in favour of putting resources into preparing for the next election. As such, CFUW joined a large group of organizations, including the Alliance for Women’s Rights and Oxfam Canada, in organizing the initiative Up for Debate.12 The group mounted a campaign that called on all political parties to commit to a federal leaders’ debate on women’s issues. Had it been agreed to, it would have been the first such debate in thirty years. Political parties were also asked to commit to ending violence against women and gender-
based economic inequality, and to support women in leadership roles. As of 2019, CFUW was actively participating in meetings for the next Up for Debate campaign.

The federation also developed briefing papers on key issues in preparation for the 2015 election and individual clubs helped get out the vote. Despite the gravity of the political climate, CFUW was always able to turn a serious matter into fun. CFUW Southport members, for example, dressed up as suffragettes—their term—wearing banners and encouraging people to vote in the election. CFUW White Rock/Surrey also invoked the memory of the suffragists in their federal all-candidates panel with the theme “From Then to Now.”13

Getting their views across to government in this new political environment often took public protests. In October 2012, CFUW joined the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses in a rally to call for a National Action Plan to End Violence Against Women and Girls. CFUW also joined in the condemnations of the federal government’s controversial maternal health initiative announced in conjunction with the G8/G20 meetings being hosted by Canada in Toronto and Huntsville, Ontario in June 2010. It was meant to be Canada’s flagship proposal on overseas development assistance and was initially met with shock, as the Harper government was known to be stingy with foreign aid of any kind and had shown even less interest in women’s health either at home or abroad. As it was, the plan ignored access to safe birth control and abortion which, as women and humanitarian groups were in near universal agreement on, was essential to maternal health. CFUW found “particularly disturbing” the government’s “elimination of foreign aid for contraception and safe, legal abortion as part of maternal healthcare.”14 CFUW’s coordinator of international relations even urged clubs to participate in peaceful demonstrations prior to the summit, although reports do not indicate how many did so. With widespread anger related to the economic recession, globalization, and government secrecy many of those demonstrations turned out to be anything but peaceful.

Despite the many areas of contention, Ottawa staff members did occasionally get meetings with government members but only on topics of mutual concern. For example, CFUW met Guy Lauzon, national caucus chair of the Conservative Party to discuss ways to counter the “hypersexualization” of children; and with MP Joy Smith concerning opposition to human trafficking.15

In its advocacy initiatives, CFUW usually acted as part of a coalition. CFUW drafted material on gun control for use by the Ad Hoc Coalition and Canadian Labour Congress, but while they tabled a brief, they were not called to present it. In October 2012, CFUW again worked with the Canadian Labour Congress, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Canada, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada on a Roundtable on the Future of the Women’s Movement in Canada. Along with several other roundtables, in 2012 and 2013 CFUW attended the Women’s Forum des Femmes hosted by Niki Ashton, official opposition critic on the status of women. The forum included a diverse group of young feminist speakers. For International Women’s Day, some thirty CFUW Clubs organized public screenings of the 2012 documentary film, Status Quo: the Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada, in partnership with the National Film Board (NFB). Among its other partnerships with women’s organizations, CFUW made a joint submission with YWCA Canada to the House of Commons standing committee on finance to address the growing problem of homelessness and joined a call for a national housing strategy. The federation also passed a resolution in 2013 for a basic income program to ensure that all adult residents of Canada, as defined for tax purposes, receive an income adequate for the necessities of life as a means of moving people out of poverty. The organization also supported private members bills on gun control, climate change, and pay equity. Karen Dunnett, VP Atlantic, was interviewed on the latter issue on TV and radio and the federation participated in a press conference with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

There was one case in which the federation took the lead in advocacy. During the term of President Susan Dyer Murphy from 2012 to 2014, CFUW sponsored a 2011 resolution on non-state-actor torture. Their involvement began when two nurses, Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald, came to CFUW asking for their help in creating a new category in the Criminal Code to cover extended torture and extended campaigns of physical and emotional abuse—often associated with human trafficking and domestic abuse—perpetuated by individuals or groups other than the state. The women wanted non-state torture identified as a crime—to validate women’s experiences and create a database to track it—so police and physicians could be trained to recognize its signs and sufferers would be more willing to come forward. Despite CFUW’s 2011 resolution to the UN anti-torture committee recommending that Canada change its Criminal Code to recognize non-state torture, the measure has not yet led to any legislative change.16

President Susan Murphy earned a Certified Management Accounting degree and took executive training through the civil service Career Assignment Program. She then held various senior positions in the Manitoba government, became active in the Business and Professional Women’s Association, and, after discovering that UWC Winnipeg was NOT a group of women professors, joined the club. In 1999, she relocated to Nanaimo, BC and first became that club’s vice president, then president, before she moved to the national executive.17 Murphy brought a sense of adventure and physical fitness to the job—she and a friend raised $4,200 by walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain and donated it to the Nanaimo Scholarship Fund. They later raised another $18,000 walking the Santiago de Compostela trail.

As noted earlier, CFUW entered into a new phase or re-branding of the organization with external annual reports, in part to reverse its losses in membership and in part to keep up with modern trends. It also published a separate stand-alone report on the Charitable Trust’s scholarship program and undertook market research on membership that identified a potential market of 4.5 million women in Canada with post-secondary education between the ages of forty-five and seventy-five who shared the organization’s values. Comparing itself to seven other women’s organizations, CFUW concluded that it was unique in offering social, educational, and advocacy activities.18 As a result, the federation created annual report headings that aligned with its four perceived strengths: education, life-long learning and leadership; advocacy; being present in the community; and helping women to pursue their education. In 2011, CFUW further identified three target audiences for its membership drives: newly retired women and empty-nesters, young mothers at home, and recent graduates. The next step was to develop plans to approach each of these target audiences.19

The 2013–2014 annual report also articulated the organizations’ strategic aims.20 The CFUW mission statement stressed its role as “a national, bilingual, independent organization striving to promote equality, social justice, fellowship and life-long learning,” and mentioned its consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, and with the Education Committee of the Canadian Sub-Committee of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. As well, the federation created a new masthead, with a new colour scheme and the tag line “The Power of Women Working Together,” a Facebook page, and a Twitter account.

President Doris Mae Oulton, who served from 2014 to 2016, had overseen many of the web and branding changes in her role as regional director and vice president of communications and governance. To strengthen relations between clubs and the federation, she and CFUW staff created an interactive website feature and set up their own press agency to provide news on CFUW events and relevant articles to club newsletters. In 2014, the first CFUW election occurred under the new Industry Canada rules that required all nominations to be posted on the CFUW website. In 2018, under President Grace Hollett, CFUW held its first virtual AGM.

Doris Mae Oulton showed an early interest in leadership through Canadian Girls in Training (CGIT), and as yearbook editor and choir director. After several community development jobs in remote areas, Oulton moved to Ottawa to coordinate Algonquin College’s program. She moved again, in 1983, to Winnipeg, where her mother-in-law gave her a CFUW membership and she served as president of UWC Winnipeg from 1990 to 1992 before moving to the national level.21 She also held senior positions with the Manitoba government and volunteered with YM/YWCA.22 During Oulton’s tenure, CFUW began making plans for their 100th anniversary in 2019 by focusing on their history, through biographies of past presidents and commissioning a centennial history.

CFUW must have been delighted with the 2015 federal election results—as a large number of women were elected, including at least four CFUW members. In addition to Green Party leader Elizabeth May, there were three Liberals: Brenda Shanahan (Châteauguay-Lacolle), Karina Gould (Burlington), and Karen McCrimmon (Kanata). Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appointment of a Cabinet made up of 50 per cent women prompted President Oulton to write an opinion piece for the Winnipeg Free Press entitled “Gender parity was the bold change we needed.” While clearly relieved to see the end of the former Conservative government attacks on women, Oulton nonetheless noted that since 1994, before the cuts and the backlash, “Canada held the highest ranking on the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI),” but by 2015 the country had fallen to twenty-third place. She reminded readers that women employed in full-time jobs only earned seventy-one cents to every dollar earned by men. Still, it was important to see women in political roles and she was encouraged by the trend.

National President Grace Hollett with other CFUW leaders attending the 100th Anniversary AGM at The Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg.

As if energized by the growing number of women in political office, CFUW established a National Mentorship Pilot Program in 2015 that connected mentors with women who had a similar field of interest. The program focused on three areas: CFUW members who had leadership portfolios; women interested in entering politics; and women in the science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) fields. The federation partnered with the University of Waterloo’s Women in Engineering Committee, the Ontario Network for Women in Engineering (ONWIE), and the Laurier Centre for Women in Science (WinS) to “promote women’s leadership and economic empowerment.”23 As well, they created a mentorship award to be given to a CFUW/FCFDU member (or to members), group, or club in recognition of their work mentoring women and girls in the STEM fields and politics.24 Clubs worked to inspire young women. In 2017, the Montréal Club launched the first North American Les Olympes de la Parole competition that gives high-school girls an opportunity to join the global conversation on gender equality and education. Ten Montréal high schools submitted written essays and three-minute videos explaining their findings. Villa Maria College won for their project “Using Raspberry Pi Technology to Disseminate Mental Health Information Amongst Nunavummiut Girls and Women.” Developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, these credit card-sized computers promote the teaching of basic computer science in isolated schools and developing countries.25

Following the 2015 election, access to government opened up again. CFUW met with the minister of the status of women on violence against women and presented briefs on legislation regulating violence and harassment for employees in federally regulated workplaces, on medical aid in dying, and on increased funding for gender equality programs and Pharmacare.

CFUW clubs continued to mark International Women’ Day. In 2017, the Ottawa Club worked with Inter Pares, Amnesty International, Oxfam Canada, and other women’s groups to organize an annual event at Library and Archives Canada with an activist fair featuring local and international organizations. More than three hundred people attended.

Clubs worked on local projects while providing friendship, lifelong learning, and advocacy work to women. In 2014, CFUW had more than two hundred book clubs across the country and one hundred lecture series. An increase in daytime programming reflected the growing number of retired members—CFUW Calgary North, for example, established four new daytime interest groups. Clubs held film screenings, often along with panel discussions following such relevant productions as the National Film Board (NFB) documentary Buying Sex; Wadjda, the first film ever shot in Saudi Arabia by a woman; and CFUW Edmonton sponsored three free movie nights, with films featuring strong women who overcome challenges to make a difference in their communities, such as Maudie, which explored the life of Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis, who struggled with arthritis, an unsupportive family, and the loss of a child.

Events such as CFUW Brampton’s fashion show, Christmas parties, and annual dinners often functioned as both fundraisers and social events. Popular fundraisers included books sales, raffles, lectures, and house tours.26 CFUW Etobicoke held weekly English-language conversation circles for newcomers and the Nanaimo Club had a unique Seashore Program, in which members collected intertidal marine specimens every spring. They then showed them to local school children and gave lectures on animals that live between the tides, emphasizing the need for preservation of the marine environment.

There was a growing focus on advocacy at the club level. As Teri Shaw explained, a survey called New Beginnings showed how widespread local advocacy was becoming and expressed CFUW’s recognition of the clubs’ community action.27 Three national initiatives gave further structure to club efforts. The National Initiative on Violence Against Women and Girls emerged from clubs that identified ways to support women and girls who are victimized by violence. In announcing it, CFUW highlighted the need to raise awareness, improve aid and prevention, and put pressure on all levels of government to support women and children who experience violence.28 The survey found that this was one of the most popular club advocacy issues and more than half the responding clubs worked in coalitions with community organizations such as women’s shelters. Kanata, for example, organized Shoe Box Projects to provide women moving out of Chrysalis House with cleaning supplies. Clubs in Orillia, North Bay, Kelowna, and Sudbury marched in Canada’s National Walk for Homelessness on February 24, 2018.

The other two national initiatives came later—in 2016 the Early Learning and Child Care Advocacy project, “Telling Our Stories,” and, in 2017, the National Initiative on Indigenous Peoples. CFUW’s approach to child care was broadly conceived. At CFUW Victoria, the club held a public forum on Raising Children Out of Poverty, and CFUW Aurora/Newmarket gave a $1,000 grant to a ward of the Children’s Aid Society who was transitioning out of care and into postsecondary education.29 The BC Council’s work led to a provincial poverty reduction strategy through projects in twenty-three communities and included an initiative to gather stories from communities regarding their child care experiences. Some clubs worked with women’s advisory groups or councils, libraries, and the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign that supported women, orphans, and grandmothers living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. The latter project particularly appealed to the growing number of retired members.

The National Initiative on Indigenous Peoples was introduced in 2017 with a webinar and a resolution on access to safe drinking water and sanitation in Indigenous communities. CFUW had long been interested in Indigenous women’s rights, expressing its opposition to discriminatory sections of the Indian Act that Canada only started to address when the equality rights section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms took effect in 1985. The Ontario Council, where the Aboriginal issues group became a national group, focused on pressuring the federal government to improve education in Indigenous communities.30 In 2013, CFUW passed a resolution calling for the government to collaborate with Indigenous leaders and provide indexed funding for “Early Childhood Education, school infrastructure, equipment, books, information technology, skills development and a core approved curriculum which is culturally sensitive.”31 Clubs took up the issue and the BC and Québec Councils sent submissions to their provincial governments.

This new initiative combined with the other national initiatives—especially violence against women, which had been dramatically symbolized in the tragic murders of fourteen engineering students on December 6, 1989. But the case of Tina Fontaine, a young Indigenous woman murdered in August 2014, drew attention to violence against women compounded by racism. Fontaine was certainly not an isolated example. As Marie-Claude Landry, chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission asserted, “The murder or disappearance of some 600 Aboriginal women and girls over the past 30 years is a national tragedy.… We must get to the root causes of these disturbing facts.”32 CFUW added its voice to the call for a national inquiry, writing letters to more than one hundred politicians and distributing a sheet of suggested actions to clubs. The federation also passed a resolution urging the government of Canada to adopt and implement the recommendations of Amnesty International’s 2004 report “Stolen Sisters: Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada.”

Clubs participated in protests by joining events for 16 Days of Activism. CFUW Peterborough, for example, joined the YWCA Freeze Mob at Lansdowne Mall in 2013, where fifty women held up roses and signs such as “We remember” and “600 + missing and murdered Aboriginal Women—Speak for them” to draw attention to women’s issues. The national office developed materials for the more than 40 per cent of clubs that participated in similar events.

Grace Hollett, from Flat Island and Mt. Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador came to the presidency after Karen Dunnett resigned as a result of the conflict over IFUW/GWI (See Chapter 14). Although she expressed regret at Dunnett’s resignation, Hollett agreed to be nominated as CFUW president in January 2017. Hollett had been serving on the board as VP Atlantic and the position now known as acting president. In consultation with the CFUW parliamentarian, the organization fulfilled the procedures for nomination during a biennial period and her position was ratified by the membership at the 2017 AGM. She ran again at the June 2018 electronic AGM and won election as president for the 2018–2020 term.33

A product of a small rural school at Flat Island and Bishop Spencer College, a girls’ school in St. John’s, Hollett received a BA in history and mathematics, a BEd, and an MEd at Memorial University. She taught in the Newfoundland school system, lectured in mathematics education, and worked with teacher-interns in Memorial University’s faculty of education. She was on the elected executive of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association (NLTA) for eight years and on the staff of NLTA for two years as the field service executive assistant.34 She also served on the Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Relations Board and the OXFAM board, and attended the AGMs and conferences of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and Canadian Research Institute for Advancement of Women. In 2000, she joined CFUW, moving from publicity chair to VP to president of CFUW St. John’s, then to regional director for Newfoundland, and on to the national board as VP Atlantic for two terms. While she was chair of the regional group, Hollett led a committee to develop, administer, and report on the New Beginnings Survey of clubs that helped direct the work of the organization.35 She also chaired an editorial committee in St. John’s, led by Faith Balish, to edit and prepare the biographies of the thirty-eight past presidents for publication on the CFUW website. In addition to her other CFUW work involving all the committees except nominations, Hollett takes great pleasure in travelling to CFUW councils and clubs, in her family, and in the fellowship of CFUW members united in worthwhile causes. With VP finance, Dominique Racanelli; VP education, Kathryn Wilkinson; and executive director, Robin Jackson, Hollett was a member of the CFUW/GWI negotiating team chaired by VP international Joy Hurst that recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations.36

In 2018, CFUW conducted an Advocacy Survey to canvas clubs on their priorities. Its findings were not surprising. It defined advocacy broadly enough to include raising awareness of an issue with members and the public and dealt with “Turning Support into Action,” which included member training and resource development; as well as advocacy for specific goals as members met with, or wrote to, elected officials and formed partnerships with other groups. The report found that 77 per cent of clubs had an advocacy committee or interest group but that when clubs undertook independent advocacy initiatives, they were usually based on local needs. Indeed, some 80 per cent viewed local issues and education/awareness as their predominant concern. But the national initiatives were pertinent—84 per cent of clubs surveyed had taken action on one or more of the three national initiatives.37 In terms of club priorities, the survey found that violence against women and girls was considered to be of paramount importance, but so too was the awarding of scholarships. Other topics of importance were poverty, the environment, human rights, and gender parity.38

During Hollett’s presidency, CFUW published a follow-up to the 1992 study called “Women in Universities: 25 Years Later” that led to efforts to address violence against women on university campuses. The new study was conducted through the national Advocacy Committee’s subcommittee chaired by Margaret Therrien of CFUW Halifax, who had been involved in the original study. The project used the same categories as in the previous one and the report found improvements in the number of female faculty members in tenure-
track positions, more gender studies programs, and incentives to enrol women in male-dominated fields.39 Areas in which progress was lagging included gender-balance in course content, pay equity for female faculty, and access to child care with flexible hours, both on and off campus. The final report also highlighted the need for universities to do more to promote equality, especially for women who are racialized, Indigenous, LGBTQIS+ students and staff, and those with disabilities. One area in which there was an especially great need for progress was in protocols and reporting procedures for women experiencing violence or harassment; many Canadian post-secondary institutions still did not have them.

Women in the Vancouver Club had already acted locally on this issue. Having heard reports of the harassment of women students at UBC, they pressured the university to establish the UBC President’s Advisory Committee on Women’s Safety.40 Elsewhere, media reports were drawing attention to the issue. In their editorial “Studying in Safety” on November 21, 2014, Toronto Star reporters Emily Mathieu and Jayme Poisson reported that only nine out of seventy-eight Canadian universities had a specific policy on sexual assault.41 Thelma McGillivray of the Burlington Club requested that CFUW consider contacting universities concerning their sexual assault policies. This resulted in a national study, the Sexual Assault in Post-Secondary Institutes in Canada Research Project, led Dr. Sharon Crabb and the Status of Women Subcommittee of CFUW’s Standing Committee on Advocacy. CFUW shared its findings at a meeting with Status of Women and Statistics Canada for the New Survey on Sexual Victimization in Post-Secondary Institutions commissioned by the Ontario government. Representatives of the federation also met with Dr. Dubravka Simonovic, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, to present specific recommendations related to sexual violence in schools.42

Another resolution that CFUW passed during this period called for non-discriminatory management of refugees and asylum seekers. In light of the reaction to the influx of immigrants into Canada through the “back door,” CFUW provided a moderate and humane voice, asking the federal government “to protect the world’s most vulnerable by continuing to increase the number of vetted refugees and asylum seekers accepted, settled, and integrated into the country.” It also asked the government to suspend the Canada-US Safe Third Country agreement, in response to the US forcing asylum seekers to make their refugee claims in the first “safe” arrival country, and in response to ongoing violation of human rights in the US.

Having brought the history of CFUW up to the present, the following two chapters will deal specifically with the scholarship program and the international situation, respectively.

Footnotes for this chapter can be found online at: http://www.secondstorypress.ca/resources