Shifting Paradigms, Enduring Legacies:
Reflecting on the 1970 Royal Commission on the Status of Women
Amber
J. Fletcher, Assistant Professor,
University of Regina
Alana
Cattapan, PhD Candidate, York University
From
April 16-19, 2015, a group of feminist activists and academics met at York
University to reflect on the legacy of the 1970 Royal Commission on the Status
of Women. Entitled Shifting Paradigms,Enduring Legacies: Reflections on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women at 50, the symposium provided an opportunity to reflect on the effects of
the Royal Commission in Canadian society prior to its 50th
anniversary in 2020. A number of keynote speeches and panels were held over the
four days to recognize the work of the Commission and the ongoing experiences
of marginalization that many women in Canada face today.
The
Royal Commission, which began in 1967 and released its report in 1970, was the
product of extensive participatory consultation on issues affecting Canadian women.
Public consultations across the country, along with 468 briefs and 1,000
letters from citizens, informed the work of the Commission and were reflected in
the 167 recommendations made in its report to the Government of Canada. Almost
fifty years later, some of the Commissions’ recommendations – such as equal pay
legislation and matrimonial property rights – have been (at least formally)
addressed. Many others, particularly those related to substantive equality, are
yet to be realized.
Symposium
participants were asked both to reflect on these legacies of the Commission, as
well as to envision future priorities and directions for gender equality in
Canada. In the contributions and the conversations that ensued, a number of
important themes emerged.
Nostalgia
One
of the key themes of the symposium was nostalgia. A number of speakers
reflected on how the Royal Commission affected their lives and how it inspired
their work. Several speakers described the consultation processes of the
Commission, describing how its hearings were a critical moment of engagement
for many women across Canada, that is, a means for women to be heard and
recognized by the state in a way that may not have occurred otherwise. Some speakers also spoke of nostalgia for the
sense of possibility and the public engagement that occurred at the time of the
Commission, and this was repeated by younger scholars reflecting on a time that
they did not themselves know. The lament for a time when change seemed more
possible was apparent throughout the symposium, that is, a time when a strong
relationship between feminists and the state was seen as an inroad to
improvements in the material conditions of women’s lives.
Neoliberalism
In a majority of the presentations, a sense of
nostalgia and loss was tied to the ascendance of a neoliberal paradigm that
focuses on the privatization of once-public services and an individualization
of once-collective concerns. The decline of the Keynesian welfare state and the
related changes to economic and social relations has also come with a neo-conservative
politics committed to the home as the site of social reproduction and a
re-inscribing of traditional gender roles and “family values.” At the same
time, the neoliberal paradigm has brought an increasing internationalization of
care work, a trend profoundly shaped by globalized and racialized forms of
inequality. In her presentation, for example, Meg Luxton spoke of
the “Global Care Crisis,” in which Canadian women’s increased participation in
waged labour, combined with their ongoing disproportionate responsibility for
unwaged work, and the lack of social services (including a national child care
policy) has led to increased dependence on paid care services provided by women
as precarious temporary workers.
Indeed,
a common thread throughout the symposium was the impact of internationalization
on Canadian public policy in the years since the Commission. While some
participants highlighted the negative implications of transnational policy
regimes like free trade, others had used transnational mechanisms strategically
to create positive change. Shelagh Day, for example, discussed how the Feminist
Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) has used international law to hold
the Canadian state accountable for missing and murdered Indigenous women.
The Women’s Movement in Canada
The
symposium also brought an opportunity for critical reflection and analysis of
the Commission’s relationship with the Canadian women’s movement, both then and
now. Many participants felt that the Commission had strengthened the feminist
voice inside the federal government, as evidenced in the subsequent creation of
the Status of Women Canada (SWC), and in civil society through the creation of
the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC). However, others
contested this view, debating whether the Commission’s achievements have been
exaggerated or romanticized by some activists over the past five decades. In a
keynote address, Monique Bégin (who was Executive Secretary of the Royal
Commission and went on to serve as a Liberal MP and cabinet minister) shared her
critique of the Commission report, noting that despite the changes it inspired,
the Commission failed to consider some areas critical to enabling women’s
equality, including violence against women. In general, however, most
participants agreed that the Commission’s legacy for the Canadian women’s
movement has far outweighed its shortcomings.
Shifting
Paradigms
The name of the symposium—Shifting Paradigms, Enduring Legacies—suggests both that the Royal
Commission altered the direction of the women’s movement in Canada, and that another
paradigm shift is needed. Participants presented a number of concrete steps and
specific solutions for Canadian social and fiscal policy, but running
throughout the discussion was the role of the state: what is the future role of
the Canadian state for gender equality in Canada? Can the currently neoliberal state
be reclaimed as an equality seeking mechanism? Should it be reclaimed?
In general, participants agreed that the state
as a mechanism remains useful and that “the state” should not simply be
conflated with the governing party. The diverse presentations showed the
usefulness of multiple levels of government, including provincial and
transnational levels, as sites for feminist action. Despite the variety of
lenses they brought to the question of the ideal future state – lens that
include human rights, intersectionality, decolonization, and social justice –
symposium participants presented a vision for a more gender-equitable Canada
over the next fifty years.
The authors would like to acknowledge the
symposium’s organizer, Professor Barbara Cameron of York University, whose hard
work made this successful symposium possible. The symposium was organized
through the York Centre for Feminist Research and was supported by a grant from
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Amber J. Fletcher is Assistant Professor of
Sociology and Social Studies at the University of Regina. Her research examines
the interaction of gender, climate change, and public policy with a particular
focus on women in agriculture.
Alana Cattapan is a PhD Candidate in Political Science
at York University and a research associate at Novel Tech Ethics at Dalhousie
University. Her work interrogates the relationships
between citizenship, social policy, bioethics, and gender. @arcattapan
