Making Change One Well-Prepared Brief at a Time: An Interview with Former York University President Dr. Lorna Marsden

What was it like being the President and Vice Chancellor of York University in 1997-2007, a time when not many women were in such a position?

In my academic life, I studied at four different universities. For twenty years after my doctoral studies, I was a professor and administrator at the University of Toronto, then after eight years in the Senate of Canada, I was president of Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) for five years from 1992-1997 and, finally, I was at York University from 1997-2007, and then taught for a few more years. All are interesting universities, each with its own culture and characteristics, but at York University I felt most at home. I love the edgier culture of York University, its total lack of complacency.

Our convocations are great moments of triumph for the graduands, faculty, staff, and families—joyful occasions!

When I took the presidency of WLU I was not the first Canadian female university president, and I received excellent advice from women colleagues who were or became presidents elsewhere. At York University, I followed another female president, a longtime friend, Susan Mann, who preceded me from 1992 to 1997. The presidency is unlike any other senior administrative position, and I was grateful for conversations with other presidents, women and men, who shared their experiences. I was fortunate because there were people who disagreed with my decisions or my leadership style, but as far as I could tell none of these disagreements was rooted in sexism.  

After participating in the founding meeting, you later became the President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), from 1975-1977. What were the motivations for establishing the NAC, and how did you and the other early participants create the first-ever national association to support and promote the interests of women? What was it like being President of NAC, what were some of the satisfactions and challenges of this position?

After the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women (RCSW) was tabled in December 1970, feminists formed pressure groups to press for the implementation of the RCSW recommendations at both the provincial and federal levels. When I returned to Canada after completing my doctoral studies at Princeton University, I was asked to join the Ontario Committee on the Status of Women (OCSW). We were a group of like-minded women. Our aim was to ensure that recommendations of the Report concerning provincial laws and regulations (such as the gender wage gap) were implemented to help bring about greater equality for women. So, we lobbied and put pressure on many levels of government and especially the government of Bill Davis, the premier of Ontario from 1971-1985. It was hard work, but we had some successes; for instance after about seven years, the Davis government agreed to some form of pay equity. We supported many other feminist groups similarly committed to achieving equality for women. Our main strategy was to prepare well-researched documents, but we also found that one of the best ways of getting things done was through the different political parties. Our members included women in all the major parties.

In April 1972, Laura Sabia, who had lobbied hard for the creation of the RCSW, convened the Strategy for Change conference to press for implementation of the recommendations. Women like Grace Hartman, Madeleine Parent, Mary Two-Axe Earley, and other leaders of women’s groups attended the founding meeting, as did most of us in the OCSW. That conference, in the old King Edward Hotel in Toronto, created the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC).  

NAC was a coalition of feminist groups from across the country organized to put pressure on the federal government so that they would implement the Report’s proposals. The OCSW was just one of those many groups from coast to coast focused on provincial governments. Laura Sabia, a well-known Canadian social activist and advocate for equality for women was the founding president; Grace Hartman, a union activist and the first female president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) the second; I was the third, although at the Founding Meeting, I was simply a novice learning the ropes. 

Before modern-day electronic communication, organizing was difficult. There was a fine group of leaders from every province and territory, however, and we wrote to each other via the post and occasionally talked, being careful because long-distance telephone calls were very expensive. We lobbied hard with those people who could make change, such as our Members of Parliament, Senators and political party executives at both the federal and provincial levels.

My innovation was to take the NAC representatives to a meeting with Cabinet members in Ottawa. That was a mixed success! Being president of NAC was very challenging: it was time consuming, filled with opposing views among the members, and no real funding at first. The OCSW, on the other hand, was differently organized, had constructive discussions, and worked strictly at the provincial level. Many of my closest friends then and now are from the OCSW.