Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

Syndicat professionnel des Infirmiers et Infirmières du Québec,

Messieurs, les infirmières ne sont plus ce qu'elles étaient

Le Collectif,

Et Encore De La Violence
faite aux femmes
Le Collectif
Once More, Violence Against Women
On Tuesday, November 7, about two hundred Montreal-
ers, mostly women, gathered together outside a downtown
theatre, to protest the performance of the punk rock
group Battered Wives.
Dans la soiree du 7 novembre 1978, quelque 200 manifestant/e/s
se sont reuni/e/s devant le Theatre St-Denis ou le group 'Bat-
tered Wives' (Femmes battues) se produisait en premiere partie
du spectacle d'Elvis Costello, afin de denoncer publiquement
encore une fois la violence faite aux femmes.
QU'est donc 'Battered Wives', ce groupe dont le dernier album a
fait I'etalage des vitrines du magasrn 2000 plus, rue Mansfield,
au mois d'aoGt dernier a Montreal? Pourquoi notre revolte?
Qui est BATTERED WIVES
Battered Wives est un groupe 'punk rock' qui a pris naissance a
Toronto et existe depuis deux ans. Pendant quelques mois, leur
disque a fait la une des vitrines de certains marchands de dis-
ques et a suscite par la pochette ironique et mensongere, la
colere de plusieurs femmes.
La couverture de I'album montre une jeune seductrice invitant
quatre jeunes hommes a monter dans sa limousine. A I'endos
nous revoyons, cette meme jeu ne femme re~ontant dans sa
voiture, abandonnant derriere elle les auto-stoppeurs amQitie-
morts, victimes d'un assaut sexuel. En toute conscience, la
conception de cet album n'est que supercherie parce qU'elle
renverse la realite des femmes battues et les presente comme
instigatrices de violence plutot que victimes. II est intolerable
que ces problemes quotidiens (aggressions, viols, etc.) vecus
par les femmes a des fins purement commerciales de certains
individus.
C'est ainsi que prit forme la Coalition des femmes de Montreal
contre la violence faite aux femmes. A deux reprises elles ont
organise une manifestation devant le magasin 2000 plus avec
I'appui du Syndicat des Musiciens du Quebec. Suite aces
protestations, le Cafe Campus de Montreal annule le spectacle
(malgre I'offre de $3,500 de Battered Wives pour se produire)
et la NSU (Union n-ationate desetudiants c.anadiens) vote un
reglement interdisant aux universites et aux colleges la presen-
tation de groupes encourageant la violence faite aux femm,es.
Les Universites Concordia de Montreal et Carleton d'Ottawa
ont contremande le spectacle. Parallelement, 125 membres de
la Coalition Women Against Violence Against Women de
Toronto ont manifeste pacifiquement {avec I'appui et la
PROTECTION dela police} devant le Centre O'Keefe de la meme
ville ou Battered Wives se produisait.
Suite aces pressions, le groupe a annonce le 2 novembre qu'i1
s'appellerait 'Wives' pou'r les productions de spectacle. Ce geste
hypocrite ne change rien a son titre et a sa pochette offensante.
II est important de noter que le groupe avait d'abord choisi le
nom 'Niggers in a Woodpile', (Negres sur un tas de bois), mais
le jugeant trop ouvertement raciste et possiblement nefaste
pour leur publicite, a opte pour celui qu'on connait deja. ,Mais
le plus grand racisme n'est-il pas le SEXISME? ? ? Tous les jours
les femmes sont confrontees a une societe patriarcale et sexiste
ou on leur refuse les droits elementaires sous pretexte de desti-
nee biologique. Cette repression connaft son point culminant
dans la violence physique qui exprime ce desir de reduire les
femmes aI'etat d'objets. Mais ces dernieres ont envie de vivre,
de s'exprimer librernent. Le temps de la revolte est deja com-
mence .et c'est pourquoi elles ont decide de man ifester ouverte-
ment, ce mardi soir 7 novembre, leur colere contre I'exploita-
tion de leur condition.
Apprenant que le groupe Battered Wives se produisait le soir
du 7 novembre 1978 au Theatre St-Denis, la Coalition des
femmes de Montreal contre la violence faite aux femmes decide
d'organiser un piquetage pour exprimer sa desapprobation. Des
7h.30, pancartes en mains et scandant les slogans tels que:
'Contre la violence faite aux femmes', 'Les femmes battues ne
font pas de musique', et 'Pas de profit sur nos dos', les mani-
festant/e/s circulaient paisiblement sur le trottoir et deman-
daient aux spectateurs qui entraient de ne pas assister ala
prem iere partie du spectacle. Tout se deroulait dans le calme
sous le regard amuse des policiers de la CUM. Pendant ce temps,
arrivaient d'un peu partout d'autres voitures de police. Sou-
dain, vers 8h.20, les policiers 'ordinaires' nous encerclerent, ne
laissant aucune place pour circuler, bloquant I'acces ala rue.
Pour preserver le calme et le sang-froid, les manifestant/e/s
s'assirent sur le trottoir, demontrant ainsi leur attitude de non-
violence et leur intention pacifique. 11 en fut ainsi pendant 15
minutes environ ou les gens, toujours assis, proclamaient leur
desapprobation. C'est alors qu'on vit s'approcher la brigade
anti-emeute, matraque en main, descendre la rue St-Denis et
executer un virage en bloc devant le theatre. Au moment meme
ou un policier demandait afaible voix de circuler (chose im-
possible puisque nous etions encercle/e/s), I'anti-emeute em-
poigna plusieurs d 'entre nous en les jetant violemment dans les
paniers asalade deja sur place depuis 10 minutes. La foule, au
comble de I'indignation, criait encore plus fort, 'Contre la
violence faite aux femmes.' Devant cette obstination, I'anti-
emeute se mit a pourchasser les manifestant/e/s jusqu'a la rue
Ontario, en distribuant ~a et la coups de matraque.
Peu avant cette brusque intervention, seize femmes de la Coali-
tion ont penetre dans le theatre (billetsachetesa I'avance), afin
d'intervenir pendant le spectacle. Ce n'e-st que plus tard qu'elles
se sont mises a lancer des tomates, oeufs et farine sur la scene
pour exprimer leur indignation et tenter de sensibiliser le
public. Peine perdue. Les gardes de securite engages par Donald
K. Donaldles evacuerent rapidement et les jeterent aux mains
des 'Flies'.
Toutes ces femmes furent victimes de violence a degres varies
pour avoir ose exprimer le fond de leur pensee. (Au temps de
Shakespeare, tout bon spectateur s'amenait avec sa provision
de tomates et d 'oeufs pour manifester son mecontente.ment. Ce
procede ex iste encore dans les pays lati ns.) II est a noter que
107
les arrestations faites a I'exterieur du theatre n'etaient d 'aucu ne
fa~on motivees par I'intervention interieure puisque celle-ci
eut lieu beaucoup plus tarde
On apprit par la suite que 57 personnes furent arretees et de-
tenues au poste 4, plusieurs jusqu'a 4 heures du matin et ce
sans qu'on porte aucune accusation contre elles.
Conclusion
Battered Wives exploite, ridiculise et approuve donc par le fait
meme les violences et la discrimination que les femmes su-
bissent chaque jour, et ce, pour servir leur interets commer-
ciaux. '... L'acte que nous avons pose est une riposte publique
aune injure publique ... et i1ln'en est resulte_ (;)u__'une, repon-
se violente aun piquetage legal et pacifique. II n'y a donc
aucune mesure commune entre I'acte pose et la reaction que
nous avons sub ie.' f
Pourquoi tant de repression?
Quel est ee pays qui se dit libre d'expression?
Quelle·est eette presumee democratie?
Qui sont done ees polieiers supposes defenseurs de la paix?
De qui rer-oivent-ils leurs ordres?
Qui veut tant reduire les femmes au silence? Pourquoi?
Times Change: A Womens Employment Service
Frances Rooney
Un examen des activites de conseil et de placement
de Times Change Women's Employment Service, de
ses difficultes actuelles et de son avenir menace.
During the past ten years women have been asserting our
right to work and to be paid in all those currencies men of
this post-industrial world take !or granted: m?ney, respect,
status, and security. The unbelievable economiC, psycholog-
ical and physical resources that have been used to oppose us
pro~ide ample indication of what there is to gain, of what
others are afraid of losing. Because of these odds and because
we have fought wit,f, almost no support, those few places
that exist to provide information and assistance are vital if
we are to continue the fight for the right to work.
Times Change is one of those places. Since it opened in
September 1974, its clients have included women of all ages
and all backgrounds. Women who had never worked out-
side the home, and women who had never stayed and worked
exclusively in the home. Some of them were torn .by the .
frustration of working for people who had a fraction of their
own ability and they wanted to investigate alternative career
possibilities. Other clients arrived at Times Change wanting
or needing to find work, but fearful that they had no ~arket­
able skills, and unsure of their ability to survive in the Job
market.
Through workshops, individual counselling; and a j~b place-
ment service, Times Change has provided women with the
necessary tools for finding paid employment. It has helped
them become aware of alternatives to traditional and often
oppressive employment situations and to re~ch their o.w~
potential. Times Change also conducts evening legal clinics,
sponsors consciousness-raising groups and has a comprehen-
sive collection of resource material on women and the labou r
force.
of their employability and for whom Manpower feels it is
providing inadequate service. When Times Change opened,
youth and women were priorities of both Manpower and
Outreach. But women and youth are no longer priorities.
The new top three priorities are Native people, remote
communities, and the physically and mentally disabled.
These can in no way be construed to include women per se.
Still priorities, but lower on the list again, are the chronically
unemployed, people receiving family benefits, and thos~ ex-
periencing great difficulty entering the labour force. It IS
into these 'less important' categories that many women fall.
Had Ti mes Change been un wi II ing to al ter its target grou ps,
it would have been given three months in which to wind
down its operations and in December 1978 would have ceased
to exist. Since the group is willing to make changes, it has
been given a six-month contract. During that six months,
the nine women who work at Times Change must evolve a
plan of action and change the services they offer in order to
aim more directly at the revised target group. If they manage
to satisfy those who control the Outreach contracts, they
will, in March 1979, be considered for another contract
which will be a maxiumum of fifty percent of the present
contract. That is, if all goes well, at the end of those six
months the agency's budget will be cut in half, its staff re-
duced, ~nd its office space re-negotiated. Then-it may be
allowed to carry on.
Women are powerless because we refuse to use what power
we have. We have number power. Help preserve these ser-
vices for women by writing your MP now. If every woman
who reads this article writes to Ottawa then these agencies
will survive.
Times Change has helped women. throu~h all stages ?f )ob
preparation and search. Because Its servlce~ are free It IS
unique in the Toronto area. Womanpower In London, .
Ont., provides a service comparable to that of!er.ed by Times
Change, and it is now suffering cut backs. A slmll~r agency
in Vancouver recently closed down. Another in Montreal
has just been dropped. Another in Ottawa hasn't been heard
from in quite a while. Now Times Change is in trouble.
Times Change is a Canada Manpower Outreach p~oject. The
purpose of Outreach is. to ·ex~end Man.power servlc~s to
groups in the community which are disadvantaged In terms
108
Write to: Bud Cullen,
Send a copy to:
Minister of Employment &
Immigration
305 Rideau St.
Ottawa K1A 0J9
Times Change
17 Sheppard Ave. W.
Willowdale,Ont.
M2J 1L9
Tel:(416) 221-5575


English

Et Encore de la violence faite aux femmes

Monet-Chartrand, Simone

Le Bénévolat - une affaire de femmes?

Anne Percival, Architect
Les experiences d'une femme architecte.
I am a resident architect for an athletic complex which is
being constructed for the Conestoga College of Applied Arts
and Technology. If anyone had asked me a year ago what I
might be doing right now, it would never have occurred to
me that I would be sitting in a construction trailer with safe-
ty boots on, the only woman involved in the building of
this four-million-dollar project.
Although I spent five years at the School of Architecture at
Carleton University in Ottawa, everything I am experiencing
now is totally new to me. Schools of architecture have gener-
aily become so much more design- and planning-oriented now
that they are no longer attached to Faculties of Engineering
and have become autonomous entities. This trend has meant
thatit is possible to spend five years in a school of architec-
ture and know virtually nothing about construction. Such
was my state upon graduation as an architect in 1977.
After graduating, I was extremely lucky to find a job almost
immediately. I had worked in architectural offices every sum-
mer during my five years at school, so that was an asset; nev-
ertheless, competition for jobs in architectural offices is in-
tense. (About half of my friends are working in Calgary or
Edmonton.) Recent graduates looking for jobs through tradi-
tional sources like newspapers or trade publications can easily
become discouraged-every employer wants a candidate with
a minimum of five yea'rs' Canadian experience-unless you
happen to walk into his/her office at the right moment. This
was precisely what happened to me. I was there, I was ready
to work, and the firm had just landed a large job.
I spent just over a year with this partnership before one of
the partners suggested to me that I move to Kitchener and act
as a resident architect. The idea struck me as little less than
ludicrous at first; I thought over various ways of saying no,
but there were so many reasons for saying yes that in the end
I succumbed to what I thought was a lack of judgement on
the part of my superiors and accepted the job. I wanted and
needed the experience in the field; I wanted· to see Q. building
come together from inception to completion: I liked the idea
of working more or less on my own, taking initiative and
shouldering responsibility; and last but not least, I hate to
back down from a challenge.
And so here I am, reviewing shop drawings, issuing site in-
structions and contemplated change orders (!), writing up
minutes of our job meetings, keeping an eye on the progress
and quality of the construction, acting as a liaison between
contractor and client, contractor and engineers, contractor
and architects, etc., etc., and generally trying to help the job
run smootilly by getting answers to questions rapidly: really
very little to be afraid of so far. Naturally, I still long to be
designing: that is why I went into architecture, not construc-
tion technology. But what I am learning here by watching
this building piece itself together is of inestimable value to
anyone who seriously aspires to become a good architectural
designer.
As for being the only woman on the site-after five years of
architectural school, being in a minority is not new to me,
and I don't entirely dislike it, although given a choice I would
certainly prefer to see a few more women out here. At school
I never found that being a woman was a drawback (to the con-
trary, in fact) and I have not run into any unpleasantness in
the real world either; my employers were very encouraging
when I doubted my own capacity for doing this job. Not to
mention the bottle of homemade crabapple jelly given to me
this morning by the job superintendent. (I hope he doesn't
think I'll falllor that old trick.)
So if you're contemplating entering non-traditional training
come on in-the water's fine!
Women in Trades
Let your views be known, make your voice heard on subjects
like this. Write to your own MP and to the Minister in charge
of Employment and Immigration, Bud Cullen, Ottawa.
For married women, living at home, the training allowance
has been dropped from $45 to $10. Although this is not retro-
active, it may reduce the incentive for women to increase
thei r ski 11 s.
If you have any concerns about trades train ing, or have any
questions about the Women in Trades Training Project, con-
tact the Women's Bureau, 241 Vaughan St., Winnipeg 944-
3476 or at the Women's Study Centre, F311, Red River
Community College Winnipeg 632-5188.
In an effort to cut costs and increase efficiency, the federal
government has modified training allowances. Effective
2 October 1978, anyone put on training allowance is sub-
ject to the followi ng schedu le:
Your Status Old Rates New Rates
person with employed $45 per $10 per
parent or spouse week week
with no dependants $79 per $60 per
or employed parent week week
With one dependant $90 per $80 per
week week
two dependants $97 per $95 per
week week
three dependants $103 per $110 per
week week
88
four or more depen-
dants
$109 per
week
$125 per
week


Women in Trades

Shack, Sybil

Good Day Care: Getting it, Keeping it, Fighting for it, Kathleen
Gallagher Ross, ed., Toronto, Canadian Women's Educational
Press, 1978, pp. 223, paperback $7.95.
Willemina Seywerd
As the title of this book indicates, it is concerned with (good' day
care in Canada, and it is long overdue. Good day care does not
occur by itself - reading these articles one understands what
good day care is and that it must be fought for.
The book is divided into nine sections dealing with such topics
as: what day care means to parents and children; parent work-
er, and community control; private-home day care; day-~are
workers; and resources. The articles cover child-care needs in
Metropolitan Toronto, group care in Canada and other coun-
tries, alternative forms such as workplace day care or corporate
day care, and notes from a day-care worker.
T~~ book favours community-controlled day care, and takes a
cntlcallook at many of the existing facilities, which are often
far from satisfactory. It wants to make the reader aware of the
responsibility of society to provide good day care and a healthy
environment for children. The article (Childrearing as a Social
Responsibility' points out that good day care is everyone's con-
cern and argues that those who use it should also control it.
Another article deals with legislation and funding, and states
that (day care services in Canada have been the victim of erratic
and generally inadequate policy-making and funding patterns.
This has had .an undeniable effect on the quantity, quality, and
range of services offered.' It goes on to examine the provisions
of all the provinces, and concludes that the present situation is
far from ideal. The three key elements that need to be empha-
sized are (quality, affordability, and accessibility' - a task that
may take a long time to accomplish.
The purpose of the book is to serve as a (practical guide to find-
ing, choosing, and developing good day care'. However, it does
much more than that. It raps the conscience of the reader. It
'Shows a dedication and commitment to improved day-care
facilities - facilities that are a supportive extension of the
family - and it calls for public awareness of day-care issues.
It is an important contribution that should not be missed by
anyone who has an interest in helping working parents get
access to rei iable practical day care and in the development of
young children in Canada.
101
The Double Ghetto: Canadian Women and Their Segregated
Work, Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong, Toronto, McClel-
land and Stewart, 1978, pp. 199, paperback $4.95.
Sybil Shack
The authors of this well-organized and thoroughly documented
study of the reasons for the segregation of Canadian women into
low.-paid, low-status work categories make a strong case for
their argument that (attitudes and ideas are not accidental pro-
ducts ?f a culture. They are related in part to the orgaJ:lization
of society to provide for its basic needs.' In a. capitalist in-
dustrial society like ours it is in the interest of established
power groups to maintain a pool of low-paid, readily available,
reasonably well-educated, but not necessarily highly skilled
labour. Women keep that pool filled, as unpaid workers at
home and as I~w-paid, often part-time, workers in the labour
force. In both Instances they do work the worth of which is
unrecognized and .which, because of its routine, unchallenging
natur~, tends t? ?Iscourage those who do it from developing
the will and gaining. t.he exper!ence and skills needed to grasp
what few opportunities do eXist for moving out of the double
ghetto of the book's title.
The Armstrongs examine and put aside biological and ideo-
I~gical factors as major causes of the condition of women. If
blol?gy ke~ps women in low-status work, for example, how
was It possible for women during the two world wars to carry
on tasks normally performed by men? How is it possible for
so many women to hold two full-time jobs one at home and
the .other in the la?our force? And if ideo\'ogy is a prime fac-
tor In the segregation of women, where do the ideas come
from? According to the Armstrongs, (The research even that
carried <;Jut within an idealist fr(imework, clearly indicates that
economic and structural factors directly influence and restrict
human behaviour and choices.'
Moreover, segregation is self-perpetuating. People are judged
by the work they do. Children very early in their lives learn to
categorize men and women by their jobs, and by the division
of labour between them. It is not surprising that these lessons
co~tinue into adult life, and encourage the development and
maintenance of g~nder-specificattitudes and behaviour patterns.
The Catch-22, chlcken-and-egg nature of women's condition
comes through clearly. Status is related to the work one does.
~omen work I~rgely in low-status, low-paid, service-oriented
Jobs, closely akin to housework, wh ich is the lowest-ran ked of
all jobs. So women are regarded as having low status, come to
regard themselves and their work as having little value, and
ten? to accept and remain in unchallenging, low-paid jobs. As
their low status contributes to the well-being of the industrial-
ist capi~alist society, equality of opportunity and choice become
theoretical rather than actual or practical.
In the concluding chapter the Armstrongs explain the growing
restlessness of many women and the consequent rise of the
women's movement in terms of the contradictions between the
essentially unchanged nature during the past thirty years of
women's work and st~tus in the labour force, and the changes
that have. taken place In o~her aspects of their lives during the
'same period of time. Married women have gone to work outside
the ~ome in increasing. nU!11bers and have tasted the pleasures of
earning money for their hitherto unrespected, unpaid services.
An economy requiring large numbers of cheap but educated
workers, a growing family need for more money than the male
partner ~Ione could bring in, better health, a longer life-span,
fewer children born closer together, a higher level of education
have all contributed to the greater employment of women.
~hese chan~e~ ha~e ~Iso force.d up0.n many women a percep-
tion of the Injustice Inherent In their segregation; and they are
rebelling against it. The Armstrongs contend, however, that
little will come of the rebellion unless or until the segregation
is eliminated by fundamental alterations in the economic struc-
ture.
Whether or not readers agree with the thesis of The Double
Ghetto they will find it a valuable contribution to the grow-
ing volume of writing about Canadian women at work. The
writing is clear and straightforward, marred only occasionally
by professional jargon, and is sharpened from time to time
with a touch of irony. An excellent list of references forms a
useful bibliography. Warning: some housewives will resent
and be disturbed by generalizations about their work and
status.
Sexism and Science, Evelyn Reed, New York, Pathfinder Press,
1978, pp. 178, paperback $4.45.
Meg Luxton
The struggle for women's liberation occurs on many fronts.
One of our tasks is to arm ourselves so that we can move out
decisively to win gains for women. One very important arena
·for such struggle is in those sciences that study human beings-
biology, sociology, anthropology, and primatology. These
sciences have provided many of the arguments that are used
against women. It is time for women to use the tools of these
sciences to show the inadequacies of existing knowledge and
theory and to develop new, more accurate sciences.
Evelyn Reed's latest book, Sexism and Science, does just that.
In eight related articles she summarizes the basic arguments
from biology, sociology, anthropology, and primatology. She
attacks one predominant current in these sciences - that which
argues, from a sexist position, that women have always been
subordinate to men and that men, and riot women, were the
instrumental agents in human evolution. Instead, she argues,
using the tools of those very sciences, women have always been
crucial in all human societies and women, as well as men, were
instrumental in human evolution.
Women who are not experts in these fields are frequently in-
timidated by the arguments that maintain that women's subor-
dinate position is rooted in innate, genetically-based biological
characteristics. Reed's book helps us to affirm that these so-
called 'objective' scientific observations are in fact disguised
political theories. She provides us with a model of how to take
on these arguments, show their inadequacies, and put forward
the convincing case that women's oppression is not biologically
based. It is instead socially determined, a part of the social re-
lations that emerged with class society.
We are regularly confronted with these pseudo-scientific argu-
ments, designed to prevent women from demanding equality.
.As a result, I urge people to read this book. It will help you
translate your instinctive anger into a scientific tool.
but can you type? Canadian Universities and the Status of
Women, Jill McCalla Vickers and June Adam, T.oronto,. Clarke
Irwin with the Canadian Association of University Teachers,
1977, pp. 146, paperback $5.95.
Marsha Mitchell
Highe~ education is a major route into jobs in Canada's power
structure - and women's place in higher education is dismal.
This is the message of but can you type? Co-authored by Jill
McCalla Vickers and June Adam, this is the first of a series of
m.onographs planned by the Canadian Association of Univer-
sity Teachers, intended to investigate issues facing Canadian
universities and their relationship to Canadian society. The
preface, by general editor Or Naomi E.S. Griffiths, states the
goal of the series as presenting 'scholarly yet popular accounts
of the various problems facing Canadian universities, accounts
that the Canadian taxpayers would find interesting to read and
- informative enough to allow them to come to their own con-
clusions about the issue in question '.
There is no doubt that this first monograph fulfills that
goal. It covers the situation for female undergraduates, for fe-
male graduate students or those entering professional fields,
and for female faculty - relating all of these situations to wo-
men's status in the Canadian power structure. The statistics,
gathered by June Adam, are both thorough and well presented
in easily read charts. By grouping these charts in topical sec-
tions at the end of chapters 2, 3, and 4, the authors do make
it easy for readers to compare the data and reach their own
conclusions. The text itself, contributed by Vickers, is an in-
teresting, though highly personal, interpretation of the statis-
tics, refreshingly free of jargon.
The statistics, by themselves, present a very bleak picture of
every aspect of women's participation in Canadian universities.
They establish beyond a doubt that women are under-represent-
ed as undergraduates, as graduates, and as faculty. Further,
they point out that even though female enrolment in univer-
sities has been gradually increasing, enrolment in the predomi-
nately 'male' disciplines of science, engineering, and profes-
sional schools is still scandalously low. For example, in 1969-
70 the percentage of students who were women and enrolled
in arts was 44, while the percentage in pure science was only
22, in engineering 1, and in law 17. The statistics go on to show
that women are, rather naturally, similarly under-represented
in these 'male' professional jobs. In universities themselves fe-
male faculty are paid less, are clustered in the lower academic
ran ks, and hold few of the power positions on senates and
boards of governors. Altogether we are left with no choice but
to realize that in academia at least we've still got a long way to
go.
While the statistics are clear enough, the interpretation is less
so. In fact, so little do the authors themselves agree that June
Adam felt compelled to add her own 2Y2-page 'Interpretive
Note' is extremely valuable to balancing the overall presentation
in the book. Vickers's interpretation is one of such unrelieved
gloom, as well, one surmises, as personal frustration, as to sug-
gest that she absolutely refuses either to have her cake or to
eat it. For example, she makes the point several times that
'Unless and until women force themselves into the "prestige"
professional disciplines and into the male or senior profes-
sions-the routes through which most Canadians gain entry
into our elites-the increased participation of women in higher
education will have little or no iQlpact on the problem of the
status of Canadian women.' However, when confronted with
the statistical fact that women have indeed forced their way
into the 'male' discipline of pharmacy, she refuses to accept
this as evidence of success: 'The decline of the independent
pharmacy, however, and the fact that almost all of the women
receiving degrees in this field work as salaried employees in
hospital pharmacies or large chain drugstores may well indi-
cate that the higher presence of women in the field is more
the result of men moving out than of women successfully forc-
ing their way in.'
There is as well one major inconsistency in her interpretation.
She points out that these senior professions are almost exclu-
sively the realm from which politicians are drawn, and that
this may shed light on women's virtual invisibility in the politi-
cal arena. Despite this, despite the fact that women are some-
102


The Double Ghetto: Canadian Women and Their Segregated Work

Boucher, Marie-Claire

La Manifeste d'une rebelle

Kositsky, Lynne

absenteeism, improved morale, increased productivity due
to less fatigue, and satisfaction with their own lives result-
ing from increased leisure to 'do their own thing'. Further-
more, we figure we saved the taxpayer $400,000 in one year!'
This personnel director also spoke of some disadvantages:
increased administration costs for double personnel when
providing training, uniforms, lockers, and benefits; other
employers listed possible lack of communication and con-
tinuity high on their list of problem areas. Furthermore,
depending on the work involved, tenure and promotion can
be complicated by job-sharing.
In 1975 M. Bossen in her study Part Time Work in The
Canadian Economy, commissioned by Labour Canada,
found little application of this kind of arrangement in her
sample survey of forty-two large organizations in the private
and public sectors. She made recommendations on the valid-
ity of this kind of arrangement in fields containing what she
calls continuous activities such as health services, computer
services, public libraries, retail stores, and hotels.
There is a great need for workers to have the choice to share
jobs-especially women workers. Job-shari ng offers society
the chance to redistribute work opportunities for a larger
number of people-it could help many pre-retirement workers
to ease into part-time work and continue longer in the work
force as con tri bu ti ng members.
What it offers me as a young woman with three small child-
ren is a possibility for part-time employment in my chosen
field with time for mothering and other family obligations.
Is anyone out there interested in going for an interview with
me?
37
Poem
Yesterday (for want of something
better to do)
I took stock of myself
and realised
I am now twenty-nine years old
possess a husband and two kids
and until recently I almost
had
an almost lover
who doesn't ring me any m.ore.
I write the occasional poem
and intermittently
I have the odd '\wp.ep around the house
usually when I can't locate the phone
or one of the children.
Not much really for the sum of a life
more like a suicide note
so I decided to do something about it
resolved to break out of my cliche
and start to live.
Then this morning when I came to
I realised I was still twenty-nine years old
with a husband two kids and the inevitable
al most lover
(a must for successful fantasizing)
so I picked up my broom
and had a qu ick sweep around the house
before discovering my typewriter
and sitting down to write this poem.
Lynne Kositsky
Abigail Heyman


Poem

Sokolov Fine, Esther

Notes from a Woman Teacher

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