(Ottawa – March 8, 2020) CAUT and academic staff across Canada mark International Women’s Day by standing united with woman and girls around the world, and celebrating their social, economic, cultural and political achievements.
CAUT continues to call on the federal government to take concrete actions to improve gender equity both within and outside of the post-secondary education sector, including signing on to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) proposed Convention 190 to end gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work.
CAUT welcomes the agreement reached last year to ensure more robust equity targets, transparency and accountability within the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program. The agreement builds upon other recent government changes to enhance equity, diversity and inclusion within the CRC Program, and capped a process started in 2003 by eight academics who, with the support of CAUT, filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over the Program’s failure to reflect the diversity of Canada’s university researchers.
On this IWD, CAUT applauds the tenacity of the women academics who persevered in challenging systemic bias within the CRC Program: Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Louise Forsyth, Glenis Joyce, Audrey Kobayashi, Shree Mulay, Susan Prentice, and the late Wendy Robbins and Michèle Ollivier.