YUFA
External
CAUT
Conference on Women in the Professoriate:
"From Graduate Student to Professor Emerita"
24-26 Oct 2002
by Ruthanna Dyer
This conference was an opportunity to meet and network with women activists from universities across Canada. I had hoped to come away with some strategies and contract language to address the inequities that affect women in the academy. Unfortunately the majority of time was spent telling us how it is or as Ursula Franklin says, "awfulizing" the situation. Only one and a half hours was devoted to participant workshops and sharing of strategies.
Two contrasting themes arose repeatedly:
Competition on the uneven playing field of the universities and granting boards and
Collaboration to improve the conditions of the collective.
The presentations by Ursula Franklin, Mary Eberts, Nancy Oliveri and Margaret-Ann Armour were exceptionally thought provoking and enriching. Each of these women clearly exemplified working for the collective and shared their values with the group.
Betsy Troutt from UMFA (Manitoba) shared their experience in addressing the differing needs within the faculty association. The challenges of negotiating for faculty close to retirement, younger faculty with the challenge of parenting and tenure, and the faculty in their midyears who often were hired with low starting salaries that continue to affect their status were addressed by the creation of an intergenerational task force. The task force was able to achieve a comprehensive bargaining package on family leave benefits that were gender neutral. Many of these were achieved in the current collective agreement.
Margaret-Ann Armour, Professor Emerita at U.A. spoke of the mentoring process in clear and practical terms. She stressed that one needed to be cautious in choosing mentors to avoid being co-opted politically or made dependent on the mentor. She stressed that one needs a mentor within one's department and one outside the department to provide objective perspective. She has been active in WISET, Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. WISET is a funded activity at the UA that brings women in the sciences together with leading researchers and science educators. Her ability to explain how women differ in their approach to scientific research was enlightening to the conference.
It was surprising and disappointing to me that the conference planning committee did not appear to plan for the needs of those of us who are differently able. One workshop using theatre methods to raise awareness of issues was based on the assumption that all participants were equally able. Although the facilitators of the workshop did not plan for my presence, the participants quietly accommodated me in the activities. The McGill Faculty Club was the site for the conference dinner and was an uphill walk from the hotel. No transportation arrangements had been made for those of us who could not walk that distance, but arrangements were announced for "group walk".
I found the conference especially helpful in updating my knowledge of the bargaining issues that face women within the university today. Unfortunately, many of the issues had not changed appreciably since the time I was a graduate student with a woman professor at the U of T in 1970!