 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Royal Commission on the Status of Women" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Commissioners | |
|---|---|
| Inquiry period | 16 February 1967 (1967-02-16) – 28 September 1970 (1970-09-28) |
| Authorized | Order in Council P.C. 1967-312 |
| Final Report | |
TheRoyal Commission on the Status of Women was a CanadianRoyal Commission that examined thestatus of women and recommended steps that might be taken by thefederal government to ensure equal opportunities with men and women in all aspects of Canadian society. The Commission commenced on 16 February 1967 as an initiative of Prime MinisterLester B. Pearson. Public sessions were conducted the following year to accept public comment for the Commission to consider as it formulated its recommendations.Florence Bird was the Commission's chair.
In Canada, 32 women’s groups had formed. As a result, Pearson created the Royal Commission on the Status of Women to ensure equality for women, and was the first Commission to be chaired by women. The Commission wrote reports to the government about issues regarding pay, child care, birth control and education. The government responded to these issues by creating the Status of Women in 1971 to inform the public about these issues.[1][2][3][better source needed]
In the mid-1960s, activistLaura Sabia led a coalition of 32 Canadian women's groups in carrying out a national campaign demanding action againstgender inequality in society.[2] The coalition formed the nationalCommittee for the Equality of Women (CEW) in 1966, with Sabia as chair, and asked the government to establish a formalroyal commission. If their demands were to go unmet, CEW promised that "two million women would march onParliament Hill" in protest.[4]
In 1967, in response to the rising public pressure, Prime MinisterLester B. Pearson set up the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada with the mandate to "inquire into and report on the status of women in Canada, and to make specific recommendations to the federal government to ensure equality for women in all aspects of society."[2]
Florence Bird, a journalist and broadcaster from Ottawa, was appointed chairperson of the Commission. This marked the first time a Royal Commission of inquiry had been chaired by a woman.[2] Bird was associated with theCanadian Senate in 1978 and was part of the Royal Commission in 1967.[2] Since she was part of the Royal Commission’s chair, she was given thousands of letters from public hearings concerning women’s rights. The arguments in the letters from common people mostly stated that men and women were seen as equal, but they were not in many ways. The main argument Bird covered was inequality pay. Women were earning half of what men earned for the same job. Bird’s commission also fought for their right to abortion and birth control access.[5]
Elsie MacGill (1905 – 1980)[6] was an active feminist and the first female aeronautical engineer.[2] During the Second World War, she had worked as chief aeronautical engineer forCanadian Car & Foundry and oversaw the mass production ofHawker Hurricane fighter planes, which led media to give her the nickname “Queen of the Hurricanes.”[7][8] MacGill had grown up with a keen interest in women's rights: her mother had broken ground as one of the first female judges in Canada, while her maternal grandmother had been asuffragist. Before joining the Commission, MacGill had served as national president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, and she would go on to become noted as a vocal critic of discrimination against women in engineering.[6] Because of her workforce experience, she advocated forwomen in the workforce. MacGill was heavily involved with women being paid for maternity leave. As aliberal feminist, MacGill believed that women should also have full control over their bodies, and should have the right to abort, much like Bird.[6]
Lola M. Lange was from Claresholm, Alberta, and had a background in farming and community activism.[2]
Jeanne Lapointe was a literature professor atUniversité Laval. She had previous commissioner experience as part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Education in the Province of Quebec.[2] After her work with the Commission, she would go on to make significant academic contributions topsychoanalytic literary analysis andfeminist analysis.[7]
Doris Ogilvie was ajuvenile court judge fromFredericton, New Brunswick.[2] She would later go on to chair the Canadian Commission of the International Year of the Child.[7]
Jacques Henripin was a professor ofdemography atUniversité de Montréal,[2] noted for his key contributions to the field of study in Canada. After his time on the Commission, he would go on to work atStatistics Canada and serve as a council member for the Social and Humanity Research Council of Canada, before receiving the Order of Canada in 1988.[7]
John Peters Humphrey was a law professor atMcGill University, known for having drafted the United NationsUniversal Declaration of Human Rights during the 1940s.[2] (appointed following Gordon's resignation)
Azilda Lapierre Marchand prepared a report on behalf of theWomen's Association for Education and Social Action (French:L'Association féminine d'éducation et d'action sociale,AFÉAS) evaluating the invisibility of women's work, and presented the findings to the Commission. She argued that their unpaid labor as homemakers and workers in family enterprises was undervalued and ignored by society.[9][10][11]
The Commission discovered that:
In 1970, a report came out with 167 recommendations to ensure that men and women had equal opportunities. Some recommendations were:
As a result, the Commission helped establish an agenda of reform for women's-rights groups in the 1970s.