Ce travail amena Mairi à être directement impliquée dans les affaires du CCPEF, qui était toujours à l'époque un comité de l'ACEA. Quand Mairi décida d'assister au congrès de Banff en 1979, elle demanda à Joan de l'accompagner et, à la fin de la semaine, la première était élue présidente nationale et la seconde directrice de la Nouvelle-Écosse.

Elles se souviennent toutes les deux des difficultés qu'il y avait a créer un organisme qui ne soit ni de type parlementaire ni par trop hiérarchique. Selon elles, des femmes comme Greta Nemiroff, Lisa Avedon, Bette Pié et Diana Ironside furent des modèles à imiter et des sources d'inspiration. Ce qu'elles attendent du CCPEF à l'avenir, c'est qu'il fasse des recherches plus approfondies sur l'apprentissage des femmes et qu'il trouve en quoi celui-ci diffère du modèle hiérarchique masculin. Les données sur les façons dont les femmes apprennent devrait être intégrées au système d'enseignement pour aider très tôt les filles à avoir confiance en elles et en leur capacité de progresser intellectuellement.

Those discussions were a new element to task force business but today, most feminist groups recognize the importance of establishing trust in order to share creativity and ideas. One of the task force's first concerns also diverged from the normal fulfillment of their mandate: they were determined not to rely heavily on money provided by the provincial taxpayers. "Most of us were women employed outside the home so we had to make arrangements for our work as well as our personal lives. We knew the value of time and money and we also knew too well examples of government appointed bodies that go on for years and years. We told the government that we would have the report ready in a year and with that said we had to decide what would be the most effective way to accomplish our goal. One of the first decisions was to begin our meetings in a smaller community and not hold the Halifax/Dartmouth hearings until the very end. I think that worked very well."

Mairi and her colleagues initiated several practices now considered models for feminism and adult education.

Starting in smaller communities was a way to upset the accepted practice of allotting them and rural centres less importance. Another way to undermine the balance of power inherent in such government organized bodies was to make a conscious effort to involve the local people rather than sweeping in and out with one day's notice and no one prepared to make presentations. Joan Brown Hicks, who was on the IWY Steering Committee, recalls, "They asked people in the communities themselves to organize the meetings."

"It just seemed that we couldn't know all the people in a community who would like to speak to us," Mairi explains, "and it made sense to ask the community to prepare the way. Then, when we arrived, these people had already arranged for the hall, the press and the coffee, and had brought with them people from the community, women and men, who weren't necessarily committed to the issues under discussion but who at least provided an audience for our hearings. That made it very pleasant because we felt we were welcomed everywhere. We didn't have to present issues and ask if they were problems in that area, the people told us themselves."

That experience led almost directly to her involvement with CCLOW, then still a committee of the CAAE, and gave her grounding experience in the principle on which CCLOW is founded. "That year gave me a basis of understanding of women's needs and problems from a very practical point of view and also showed me the importance of networking, though we didn't call it that then, to communicate with people and listen to what they had to say." It was perhaps for this reason that women on the CAAE committee sought her out. I attended the meeting in Winnipeg in 1977, as a delegate from Nova Scotia."


Back Contents Next