Janine Brodie, University of Alberta
Guest Contributor

The struggle for gender equality in Canada is multidimensional and ongoing, despite the increasingly widespread assumption that gender equality has been achieved (SWC 2005) and the assertion that “we are all equal now.”  The Canadian women’s movement (CWM), similar to its counterparts elsewhere, was and continues to be an amalgam of many different streams of political thinking, organization and activism. Although in the 1970s and 1980s the mainstream of the CMW achieved unprecedented access to Canadian governments and bureaucracies, its influence in the corridors of power proved short-lived.  In the past decade, the CWM along with all equality-seeking groups has been subjected to a politics of delegitimization, dismantling and disappearance.

The often symbiotic relationship between the CWM and the Canadian state was established 40 years ago with the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women (RCSW 1970).  Appointed in 1967, the RCSW was mandated to “recommend what steps might be taken by the Federal Government to ensure for women equal opportunities with men in all aspects of Canadian society” (1970, vii).  Ultimately recommending over 160 tangible government actions, the RCSW also fixed the focus of a growing and increasingly politicized women’s movement on the federal government and on the task of breaking down legislative and social barriers to women’s equality. In 1972, an ad hoc group of prominent Canadian feminists formed what was to become the flagship organization of the women’s movement – the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)  – for the precise purpose of monitoring government’s implementation of the RCSW recommendations. (more…)

Harvey Krahn and Alison Taylor, University of Alberta
Guest Contributors

Photo courtesy m00by on Flickr.

The educational aspirations of 15-year-old Canadians are very high, while those of visible minority immigrant (VMI) youth¹ are even higher. Our research uses data² from the 2000 Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), for which over 26,000 teenagers across Canada were interviewed. Our research indicates that 79% of VMI youth hoped to attain at least one university degree compared with 57% of their Canadian-born non-visible minority (NVM) counterparts.

Other research has shown that language and cultural barriers can stand in the way of immigrant students, and it is possible that such barriers could dampen their aspirations. So we were surprised by how high the aspirations of young VMI youth were. To explain these findings, we examined several socio-demographic factors such as parents’ education and family income. For example, the data suggest that 35% of VMI teenagers came from households where at least one parent had a university degree compared with 21% of Canadian-born NVM students. However, a much higher percentage of VMI students (59% compared to 46% of Canadian born NVM youth) lived in households with a total annual income of less than $60,000.

Yet the “visible minority immigrant” effect was apparent, regardless of the education or income level of parents.  In fact, among families where neither parent had a university degree, 75% of VMI students aspired to a university education compared with only 51% of Canadian-born NVM students. Similarly, three-quarters of VMI youth in families with household incomes below $30,000 aspired to a university education compared with less than half of Canadian-born NVM youth in similar circumstances. (more…)

John P. Portelli, OISE, University of Toronto
Guest Contributor

Deficit thinking hinders leadership for equity. It privileges mainstream or conventional thinking and marginalizes any deviation from it. Yet, if one believes in a robust conception of democracy, one that fully respects social justice, diversity and equity, then leadership for equity should be a natural extension of democracy so conceived. However, even a softer form of democracy, for example, a liberal democracy such as ours in Canada, should be sympathetic to leadership for equity since such a conception and practice of leadership is consistent with the liberal values of freedom, equality and fraternity. In my research with Rosemary Campbell-Stephens of the London Centre for Leadership in Learning we suggest leadership for equity needs to incorporate inclusive procedures such as discussion, transparency, and community involvement as well as an honest treatment of substantive issues that matter (e.g. racism and sexism) (Portelli & Campbell-Stephens, 2009).

Unfortunately, ‘deficit mentality’ is a by-product of the prevailing neoliberal ideology, which has dominated the Western thinking in education for the last 25 years or so (Ross & Gibson, 2007). If we really believe in the ideal of leadership for equity in education, then we need to be aware of the nature of the deficit mentality, its pervasiveness and its dangers. The deficit mentality has taken different forms in education (Dei et al., 1997; Valencia, 1997; Borg & Mayo, 2006; Weiner, 2006; Portelli, Shields & Vibert, 2007).  This mentality relies on the assumption that there are indubitable educational values, norms and qualities that are ‘normal’ and universally acceptable for all. Anything that either diverts from or challenges such thinking is considered to be lacking in quality and, hence, a deficit.  It is precisely this kind of mentality that underwrites diverse forms of racism, sexism, classism and homophobia, including in the academy and educational system more broadly. (more…)

Linda Briskin, York University
Guest Contributor

Interventions to promote employment and pay equity often focus on legislation. However, collective bargaining is a significant although often invisible instrument for promoting workplace equity. Unions, which seek to promote both social transformation and the institutional mainstreaming of equality, can empower women to act collectively in their own interests, especially in the current global context.

‘Bargaining equity’ may well depend on what I have called ‘equity bargaining’. The former refers to the equity issues themselves while the latter to the process of bargaining, bargaining strategy and the gender of negotiators. In fact, equity bargaining may well be the foundation for successfully bargaining equity issues. Without a shift in who is negotiating, and how they negotiate, there may be little change in what is negotiated. Or to put it more broadly, unions need to link the struggles around diversity, equity and representation inside unions to the collective bargaining process and agenda (Briskin 2006). (more…)

Malinda S. Smith, vice-president Equity Issues

This photo shows Haiti's Presidential Palace, which collapsed during the earthquake of Jan. 12. Photo courtesy M Eriksson on Flickr.

There is a saying in Haiti, Tonia Dyer tells us, “When the nose is hit, the eyes cry. You have to look at the ripple effect of something like this.”

On Tuesday, 12 January 2010 the Republic of Haiti experienced a devastating 7.0 earthquake, which was followed by some 34 aftershocks. The quake has been categorized as a “catastrophe”   for the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Its people now face conditions characterized by “devastation and despair.” While a complete picture of the casualties is yet to be determined, we do know that this earthquake, which follows in the wake of three hurricanes in September 2008, already has had a devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of the three million people who live in Port-au-Prince,  the capital city. It has destroyed or irreparably damaged much of the city’s infrastructure, including a major hospital, the Haitian Presidential Palace, the United Nations headquarters and the peacekeeping headquarters.

For those of us in the humanities and social sciences community who are committed to engaged scholarship and to social justice and social wellbeing, this major ecological and humanitarian crisis in Haiti is a call to action.

The Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean,  spoke for many of us when she stated yesterday evening, “I would like all Haitians to know that they are not alone and that the people of Canada will respond to this emergency.”

Malinda S. Smith is an associate professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta and vice-president Equity Issues for the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.