Women's Studies at York University - The Process to a Degree Program

by Noami Black

In general, the field of Women's Studies dates from the late 1960s, when the revived Women's Movement gave a focus to women's concerns about the rigidities, biases, and omissions characteristic of established academic disciplines. Here in Canada, we can most conveniently associate both the new militancy and the new scholarship with the appearance of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, in 1970. The Report did not call for any academic response, but its own excellent studies became the first contemporary documentation of the situation of women in Canada. The very need to commission the studies showed the urgency of developing an appropriate scholarship, while the inequities described in the Report underlined the need.

In 1972, the massive Report of Ontario's Committee on Post-Secondary Education was obliged to rely on the research done by women's voluntary organizations for its sections on women. Although it did not mention Women's Studies, this report demonstrated in detail the significant but little-known disadvantages "do of women in post-secondary education

In 1976 the Symons Commission (on Canadian Studies in higher education) presented a somewhat different situation. Dr. Symons was able to refer to a collected volume of writings about women in Canada and also to a Newsletter circulating among researchers interested in Women's Studies (these were the first edition of Marylee Stephenson's Women in Canada and the earliest version are of what is now Resources for Feminist Research). He urged other institutions to join the dozen Canadian universities he identified as offering courses on the role of women. In Ontario, he noted only the courses that were then being offered In at the University of Toronto and Waterloo.

Even before 1976, however, course in Women's Studies were also available at York, as the university's Senate Task Force on the Status of Women noted. In its Report, submitted in February, 1975, the Task Force recommended the establishment of a formal Program in Women' Studies at York. This was not to happen for eight more years. Nevertheless, it was soon possible "do" Women's Studies in the university as part of a variety of inter or multi-disciplinary program in the various units, of the institution. Students were able to concentrate on Women's Studies under Atkinson College's rubric of Liberal Studies, under Glendon College's Multidisciplinary Studies (General Education), and under the Arts Faculty's Individualized Studies. All of these are still possible, and a number of students have in fact earned these degrees over the years although the words "Women's Studies" are not to be found on their diplomas or transcripts. Essentially Women's Studies had been smuggled into the curriculum and bundled away into whatever odd corners available.

In all respects except formal standing, however, Women's Studies grew rapidly at York in the 1970s and 1980s. In the spring of 1975 a brochure listed the Women's Studies courses available in the entire university: some forty in all. By 1982- 83 the listing for the Arts Faculty alone was over seventy-five (although, by now, this listing had become far more sophisticated and included three categories, adding to the obvious courses those with "major themes or unit on woman" and also those which "because of their approach or subject matter are particularly appropriate for research on women") Women's Studies courses were, by then, to be found in almost all sections of the university. These courses were consistently popular with students, though they often had difficulty finding a very high place in the priorities of their departments or divisions.

In addition, a series of institutions related to Women's Studies had developed. During the academic year 1975-76 the York Women's Centre was founded and in 1976-77 what is now called the Toronto Area Colloquium of Research on Women began to meet. The Colloquium has met four times a year since then, bringing together researchers from area institutions (some eight or ten been represented over the years), meeting alternate times at York and co-directed each year by a York person along with someone from either the University of Toronto or the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. In 1976 York's first Advisor to the president on the Status of Women was pointed: the successive incumbents of the office have helped to support the programs in Women's Studies, providing services and funds for the Colloquium, for the annual Women's Studies course brochures and, more recently, for the York-YWCA Women's Collection. The Collection itself, on loan from the Metro Y from 1982-4 and now, as I write this in May, 1984, donated to York through the generosity of Mrs. Mary Jackman, comprises a substantial Women's Studies library and resource center. Since 1981 York has also been the co-producer (with Centennial College) of the bilingual journal Canadian woman Studies/Cahiers de la Femme.

When we note student caucuses, Women's Studies Advisors in each degree-granting unit, and a continuing committee of faculty interested in Women's Studies, it is clear that a program in Women's Studies had evolved at York - but without a title or the right to give degrees, lacking legitimacy, and without claims on time or curriculums. Also lacking: budgets, secretarial help (unless bootlegged) or any released time for those involved.

In l981, therefore, the faculty committee in question settled down seriously to the very complex and lengthy process of getting a formal Women's Studies program approved at York. This met in the Faculty of Arts, for reasons growing out of York's own peculiar academic structure.