non-discrimination and pregnancy leave, women still faced systemic discrimination. Women’s groups formed across the country. With more access to education than their mothers, women in the 1960s were graduat- ing from universities with new views about family and career. The contraceptive pill became available in 1960 and, although pre- scribing or distributing information about contraception was illegal in Canada until 1969, the pill gave women the freedom to control their childbearing and to plan their lives around education, career and family in- stead of just family. Women’s groups joined together and
called on the federal government to inves- tigate the factors contributing to women’s inequality. In 1967, Prime Minister Pearson appointed the Royal Commission on the Sta- tus of Women in Canada. In 1970, the Com- mission made recommendations about edu- cation and training, maternity leave, birth control and abortion, improved pensions, women’s shelters, child care, family law re- form and affirmative action.
WOMEN IN EDUCATION
Women elementary teachers generally found their working conditions were better than those of many other women workers. More than 50 years of action by their federation had given them employment rights, rights for married women, pregnancy leave. New bargaining legislation allowed them to ne- gotiate improved rights for women. Now they began to talk about sexual harassment, protection from discrimination, improved working conditions, paid pregnancy and pa- rental leaves and equal treatment for women in obtaining positions and promotions.
FROM BRIGHT BEGINNINGS TO HARSH REALITIES
In the 1970s, the new generation of women teachers found their progress impeded by ceilings on school board expenditures, fed- eral government wage and price controls and a decade-long period of declining enrolment. The boards responded by making deep
cuts, many disproportionately affecting wom- en and young children. Boards attempted to replace junior kindergarten teachers with early childhood education graduates. They increased primary class sizes and introduced teaching assistants to handle the extra work- load. Special education and ESL programs were slashed and libraries closed. In many
FWTAO, Days of Action.
“IN THE 1970s WOMEN BEGAN TO THINK BEYOND THE IDEA OF EQUAL PAY IN FAVOUR OF EQUAL PAY FOR WORK OF EQUAL VALUE, OR PAY EQUITY. IN SPITE OF LEGISLATION, UNIONS AND COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS, WOMEN WORKING FULL TIME IN THE PAID LABOUR FORCE WERE STILL MAKING, ON AVERAGE, SIGNIFICANTLY LESS THAN THEIR MALE COUNTERPARTS. WORK DONE PREDOMINANTLY BY WOMEN WAS PAID AT A LOWER RATE THAN THAT DONE BY MEN, EVEN WHEN THEY HAD THE SAME EMPLOYER.”
boards, teacher-librarians were replaced by library technicians. In 1975, new legislation gave federations
the legal right to bargain collectively with boards. Teachers had been making great strides in obtaining salary improvements, winning significant double digit settlements to bring their salaries in line with those of other pro- fessional groups. Then, in October 1975, the federal government imposed wage and price controls. Many of the gains were rolled back and federation efforts diverted from their own issues to fighting to maintain the status quo. In the 1970s, enrolments declined steeply
resulting in an estimated loss of 5,500 el- ementary teaching positions. Old biases re-
appeared. Women who had been forced to resign before statutory maternity leave was enacted could not find work. Women who had accepted part-time assignments had no hope of gaining full-time work. Married women were pressured to reduce their hours, to resign or to retire early to make jobs avail- able for others. Women were identified as surplus to system needs in greater numbers than their male colleagues. One board had 53 teachers on its redundancy list – all women. In another list of 200 redundant teachers, women outnumbered men by 9 to 1. At the beginning of the decade, 75 percent of el- ementary teachers were women; by 1980, it was 66.5 percent.
ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 15
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