Katie Dickison

LBST 200

Sean/Aurelea

December 4, 2017     

   The History of Women’s & Gender Studies at Capilano University

Capilano University, then College, opened its doors in September of 1968. Four years later on October 22nd, 1973 five young women aged 22 to 32 began the journey of establishing a Women’s and Gender studies program at Capilano College. Built on this idea that courses in Women’s Studies and Gender Studies will enable you to see the world, and your place in it, more completely. That it will provide an experience that will inform you, challenge you, and connect you with others who are working to create a better world. Women’s and Gender Studies is a topic and course that is relatively new not only to universities around Canada but specifically at Capilano University. The reason being, that it only came to relevance during the feminist movement in the early seventies. Even though it’s only been around for 44 years it’s still very important to look back on the history of Women’s & Gender studies so people can better understand what it took to get it to where it is today as well as how the curriculum has changed over time. It has come a long way and is something that will carry importance for years to come. It could even be argued that Women’s and Gender Studies is more important and relevant in today’s society than it has ever been before. This research paper will be investigating the history of Women’s and Gender studies at Capilano University and by using the Capilano College calendars and The Dialogue Continues Tales from the Making of Capilano College we will get a closer look as to where it all started and what it looks like today.

You may not know it but the Capilano College calendars hold an unbelievable amount of information about the university. Each one acts as a sort of time capsule for the years, which makes them such a great resource for investigating the history of this University. The doors first opened in September of 1968 and occupied the campus and facilities of the West Vancouver Senior Secondary School with the aim of “offering a varied curriculum appropriate to the district that it serves” (“1960-70 Calendar” 9). Obviously being that the university just opened it had not yet established varying programs for different areas of interest. The main service was to provide: An academic transfer program in arts and sciences approved by the major universities in the Province, One and two year career diploma courses leading to employment, Technological courses leading to graduation from the B.C. Institute of Technology, A general education program providing two years of academic studies leading to a College diploma, A community service program designed to meet the needs of the community through short courses, seminars, lectures, and workshops. With that being said, in 73’, things started to change for the better. On Monday, October 22nd of that year, five women aged 22 to 33 set off to Victoria to meet with Eileen Dailly, Minister of Education, to convince her of the need for a Women’s Resource Centre and a series of outreach programs for women at Capilano College. The five key objectives were: a Resource Centre, a Career aims program to help women get back to work, a community education lecture series, academic credit courses, and liaisons with North Shore community women in mind. A few weeks later after their meeting with Eileen Dailly and various MLAs, they eventually granted them seed money to organize themselves for the following fall (1974/75). In the Capilano College Calendar for 1974/75, the programs for women are mentioned under General Information for Students and those courses include two women’s studies series. They take the form of ten and fifteen-week lectures followed by discussions and seminars and centered on topics of family court, personal evolution, native women, motherhood, corporate capitalism, etc., and the historical and sociological aspects of the status of women. Being that it was the first year they had not yet developed a specific program geared to this area of study. However, they did mention that there are courses that relate especially to women with those being General studies 170 and Commerce 180. Two years later in 1976, they hired a new coordinator, Marsha Trew, who created many different workshops in Arbutus 108 and it was said that with her arrival the “Women’s Centre’s identity became fully established.”(Schermbrucker and Kilian 55)

Ten years later and Women’s Studies is an actual program offering four different courses: Women and Psychology, Women and the Past: An Historical Survey, Women in Anthropology, and Contemporary English-Canadian Women Writers. With each course investigating the role of women in different disciplines. This program has come a long way in the last decade and has managed to establish itself as a real area of academia. I think it’s also important to note that included in the calendar, in terms of women’s studies, is pictures of the classroom filled with students both male and female. There’s this misconception that women’s studies is only for women being that it’s in the title, but it’s not. “Courses and programs are open to all. Women’s and Gender Studies provides a special space and focus for women’s knowledge and experience, and male students are welcome if they want to learn about women’s perspectives and are interested in questioning the way masculinity and femininity are constructed in our society.”(Women’s & Gender Studies)

It’s important to look at Women’s and Gender Studies through the decades as to understand where we have come from and how much it has evolved based on our ever-changing society. With that being said what the next decade, 1994/95, brings us is a more modernized scope of the role of women in society. Women in the 90s generally grew to become much less dependent on men and in turn began to receive more degrees than men, with women as executives, lawyers, and doctors being accepted as the norm. They were more secure in their role as working women and professionals so it makes sense that those fields would be looked at. A decade later women’s Studies offers over double what they did in 1984/85. Instead of simply investigating women in disciplines of the Arts or social sciences you are now getting to see them in politics, science, and technology. The courses offered include: Introduction to Women’s Studies, Contemporary Women Writers and American Writers, Women and Psychology, Politics, Anthropology, Art, Science, Technology, and the Past. Women in society are changing so we should ultimately change how we look at them.

Finally, today, Women’s Studies has become Women AND Gender Studies offering sixteen courses from Women in Law to Gender, Politics, and Policy. Women’s & Gender Studies is needed now more than ever. A quick glance at the news highlights the need for the study of gender dynamics. Women’s issues including pay inequality, campus sexual assault, representation in politics, and access to health care are frequent subjects of discussion. But how we talk about these topics is as important if not more so than that we’re talking about them in the first place. Many of the debates lack knowledge and depth, and all of these subjects demand more informed discussion and would benefit from feminist analysis. One of the pillars of women’s studies is the concept of intersectionality—how different forms of discrimination and oppression interact. Intersectionality tells us that there is no one singular experience for women because of the way gender works in conjunction with race, ethnicity, social class, and sexuality. If we applied this lens to debates about pay inequality and reproductive rights legislation, our conversations would be more nuanced, meaningful, and productive.

As the years go by and our society evolves so do the women in it and Women’s Studies follows just so. Women’s Studies began in 1973 when five women went to Victoria to have a meeting with the Eileen Dailly the Minister of Education to establish a Women’s Resource Centre and a series of outreach programs at Capilano. That brought rise to this ever-changing area of study. Throughout the 44 years that it has been around we have seen it as just two lectures for ten to fifteen weeks in 1974/75 to an established program today offering sixteen varying courses on the topic as well as the changing of the name to Women’s & Gender Studies. This history informs us of how far we’ve come and that there’s nowhere to go but up. It has come a long way and is something that will carry importance for years to come.

 

 

 

                                                   Works Cited

University, Capilano. “Women’s & Gender Studies.” Women’s & Gender Studies – Capilano University, www.capilanou.ca/womens-studies/.

Kilian, Crawford, and William Gerald Schermbrucker. The dialogue continues: tales from the making of Capilano College. Capilano U Faculty Association, 2014.

Capilano University 1969-1970 Calendar, PDF. https://moodle.capilanou.ca/pluginfile.php?file=%2F1075354%2Fmod_resource%2Fcontent%2F1%2F1969-1970.pdf

Capilano University 1974-1975 Calendar, PDF. https://moodle.capilanou.ca/pluginfile.php?file=%2F1075362%2Fmod_resource%2Fcontent%2F1%2F1974-1975.pdf

Capilano University 1984-1985 Calendar, PDF. https://moodle.capilanou.ca/pluginfile.php?file=%2F1075381%2Fmod_resource%2Fcontent%2F1%2F1984-1985.pdf

Capilano University 1994-1995 Calendar, PDF. https://moodle.capilanou.ca/pluginfile.php?file=%2F1075395%2Fmod_resource%2Fcontent%2F1%2F1994-1995.pdf

Capilano University 2017-2018 Calendar, PDF. file:///C:/Users/Katie/Downloads/Calendar%202017-2018.pdf

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