Editorial: Where Are All the Women?
Calling for Concordia Administration to Live Up to its Own Standards of Equality
There are 58 departments, institutes, and colleges that make up Concordia University, yet only one of those institutions has a majority of women on staff—the Simone de Beauvoir Institute.
That doesn’t come as a surprise, as SdBI is dedicated to studying feminisms and questions of social justice. The college’s new principal, Kimberley Manning, came in with a strong mandate, expressing a goal to establish Concordia as “North America’s first feminist university,” on Concordia’s website.
She was appointed last summer and started serving on Jan. 1 of this year. She also expressed hopes that Concordia will become a model for “a next-generation university that places social justice at the centre of its mission and practice.” So far, those hopes have fallen short.
Attaining this goal means reaching gender parity, as is outlined in official university policy HR-8, which addresses employment equity.
The policy states that Concordia “promotes the full participation and advancement of qualified candidates from groups which have traditionally been under-represented, especially women.”
Concordia’s two highest-decision making bodies, the Board of Governors and Senate, are below par in this regard. The BoG is composed of 17 men and 11 women, and there are two thirds ruling men in both administrations combined.
The Link condemns the university for not upholding the standards they set for themselves. Concordia was recently put at the top of the list of Montreal’s best employers by an annual competition organized by the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers. The Link does not believe the university should rest too heavily on this title, considering the major gender gaps in Concordia staff.
Being a feminist university, as explained by Manning, is not only about reaching gender parity, but about offering a safe and open space for students and staff.
In the last few months, the university’s sexual assault policy has been criticized, with for using a soft hand when dealing with sexual violence cases.
For one, Concordia’s tribunal office repeatedly delayed hearings when a student filed complaints about on-campus confrontations with her ex-boyfriend, who was also a Concordia student at the time.
Administration also proved to be less-than-accommodating in handling the now-settled Mei-Ling case.
Concordia has a sexual assault policy, which was critiqued by the Sexual Assault Policy Review Working Group. In a document serving to strengthen Concordia’s sexual assault policies, the working group suggested the need for a definition of sexual violence, a definition for consent aligned with the Criminal Code of Canada and the necessity of using clear, accessible and inclusive language.
What’s more is that these internal problems reflect greater issues, even on a provincial and national scale. Last week, controversies sprung up as Quebec’s minister responsible for the Status of Women, Lise Thériault, shied away from calling herself a feminist.
Later in the week, she rectified her statement by saying, “I didn’t say I’m not feminist. I said I’m more égalitaire, inclusive feminist.”
In conversation with Chantal Maillé, professor at the SdBI, about the state of feminism in Quebec, in light of International Women’s day on March 8, Maillé joked about Thériault’s stance to “convert to feminism in 24 hours.”
She also expressed a level of discomfort in Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard’s choice to appoint Thériault to the position.
“Couillard should take responsibility for appointing a woman to be put in a position of authority,” Maillé said, adding that Thériault “clearly doesn’t have a clue of her job.”
After Justin Trudeau was elected Prime Minister of Canada, the Quebec cabinet shuffle may have been done to reflect the momentum he started. Under Harper’s Conservative administration, Couillard’s government was less criticized in comparison to the federal government. Now, under Trudeau’s Liberal leadership, Couillard is under more scrutiny to live up to the new PM’s standard of equality.
The Liberal government has appointed multiple female federal ministers, like federal Indigenous Affairs minister Carolyn Bennett and Justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould.
“The government is proclaiming its defence of feminism,” Maillé said. “It’s part of their language.”
A minister appointed to represent women expressing anti-feminist statements demonstrates a gap between how the government says it should be run and how it actually is.
Today, there are 18 men and 12 women sitting in the Quebec cabinet.
The Link has noticed too many disparities in the way those in positions of power—both at a university and government level—use language of positive reinforcement to persuade the public, while their actions fail to reflect their words.
Concordia administration should respect its own policies, and actively make gender parity and social justice the priority that they say it is.
