YUFA
External
OCUFA Reorganizing Our Reality: A Better Work Environment for University Women
Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) Status of Women Workshop (26 October 2007, Delta Chelsea Hotel, Toronto)
by Andrea O’Reilly, Associate Professor, Department of Arts & Letters, York University
9 January 2008 – I attended the luncheon keynote by Professor Briskin and the afternoon session. This report will report on the afternoon session.
The afternoon session built upon the morning discussion wherein the participants where asked to identify the problems and barriers women faced in academe. Numerous topics were identified including employment equity, work / life balance, work environment employment equity, workload, mentoring, institutional policy, feminist research and scholarship, networking and terms and conditions of employment. Following the luncheon, participants were asked to identify the three issues they felt were most important: work environment, employment equity and work / life balance were identified as the top three concerns. Individuals were then asked to join a group from the top six ranked themes and explore the following themes: I wish that… I wish for…; Pay off for achieving this; Reasons to be optimistic, and Do-able ACTIONS that could be taken to move toward this wish. I participated in the group on work/life balance. Listed below is our group’s response to these four questions. I found the exercise to be exceptionally illuminating and useful as it gave rise to concrete and practical strategies for bargaining. As well, it demonstrated, in its discussion on “pay offs”, that these best practices are also in the best interest of the Employer and thus the exercise provides effective argumentation for the implementation of these best practices.
Other Delegates from this Conference:
Alice Propper
Shobna Nijhawan