Reclaiming Lives


Interview
Greta Hofmann Nemiroff

by Susan McCrae Vander Voet

Greta Hofmann Nemiroff is a feminist educator and Director of the New School, Dawson College, in Montreal. She is a feminist writer and was Quebec Director of CCLOW for several years. She is interviewed here, for WEdf by Susan McCrae Vander Voet, an in- dependent consultant and former Executive Director of CCLOW.

As a
teacher of
English at
Concordia
in about
1968, I
made sure
to include
material on
women.

Susan: How did you come to be interested in teaching women's studies?

Greta: When I was an English student, I always found myself writing papers on women characters and authors. As a teacher of English at Concordia in about 1968, I made sure to include material on women. But it wasn't really until another friend, a philosophy teacher and I got together to try and discuss some papers we were writing, between the demands of our three babies, that we realized we needed to be writing about ourselves, as women.

This led to the first women's studies course at Concordia in 1970, which might also have been the first formal course offered for credit, in Canada. We decided to hold it in the evening in order to attract older women, as well as the younger university students.

Susan: Did you notice any difference between the older and younger women in the course?

Greta: Oh, yes. Some of the older women had a much better sense of the material, because they had lived the reality of women's lives. Many of them were trying to return to work after raising families, or had found themselves alone with their children, either as widows, or separated, after many years of marriage. Many of them could see that marriage wasn't a guarantee of security.

The younger women, though, who hadn't experienced as much, would deny the problems initially. They were still ready to buy the myths about women, and believed in individual power. So they didn't develop a systemic sense of women's problems as readily.

Susan: How long have you been teaching women's studies?

Mme Greta Hofmann Nemiroff, éducatrice féministe, directrice de la New School au Collège Dawson de Montréal, écrivain, directrice du CCPEF au Québec pendant de nombreuses années, a consenti à passer une entrevue pour Wedf avec Mme Susan McCrae Vander Voet, conseillère indépendante et ancienne directrice générale du CCPEF.

Susan : À votre avis, quels sont les éléments les plus importants de l'éducation des jeunes femmes?
Greta : Il est essentiel de les aider à faire la part des choses entre ce qui est inné et ce qui ne l'est pas dans leur personnalité de femme, ainsi qu'à développer une conscience collective pour parvenir à une action collective. Elles doivent comprendre le relativisme de l'identité sexuelle. Il est important qu'elles apprennent à avoir foi en leurs propres instincts et sanctionnent la façon dont chacune expérimente le monde en tant que femme, par rapport à celle dont les femmes sont perçues dans la société. Ce genre d'éducation vise à les aider à déterminer en tant qu'individus leur attitude à propos de nombreuses questions, à se pencher sur les choix qui s'offrent à elles et à prendre publiquement position pour respecter leurs propres valeurs.


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