Royal Commission on the Status of Women

In the mid-1960s, activist Laura Sabia led a coalition of 32 Canadian women's groups in carrying out a national campaign demanding action against gender inequality in society. In 1967, in response to the rising public pressure, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson set up the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada with the mandate to "inquire into and report on the status of women in Canada, and to make specific recommendations to the federal government to ensure equality for women in all aspects of society." == Commissioners ==

Florence Bird, a journalist and broadcaster from Ottawa, was appointed chairperson of the commission. This marked the first time a Royal Commission of inquiry had been chaired by a woman. Elsie MacGill (1905 – 1980) was an active feminist and the first female aeronautical engineer. MacGill had grown up with a keen interest in women's rights: her mother had broken ground as one of the first female judges in Canada, while her maternal grandmother had been a suffragist. Before joining the commission, MacGill had served as national president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, and she would go on to become noted as a vocal critic of discrimination against women in engineering. ==Results==

Azilda Lapierre Marchand prepared a report on behalf of the Women's Association for Education and Social Action (, AFÉAS) evaluating the invisibility of women's work, and presented the findings to the commission. She argued that their unpaid labor as homemakers and workers in family enterprises was undervalued and ignored by society. The Commission discovered that: • in 1970 only 3.9% of managers were women; • although 8 out of 10 provinces had equal-pay laws, women were still paid less than men for doing the same work; and • two thirds of people that were on welfare were women In 1970, a report came out with 167 recommendations to ensure that men and women had equal opportunities. Some recommendations were: • "gender" and "marital status" be prohibited as grounds for discrimination by employers • training programs offered by the federal government be made more open to women • the federal government name more women judges to all courts within its jurisdiction • more qualified women from each province be appointed to the Senate as seats became vacant, until a more equitable balance between men and women were achieved • employed women be granted eighteen weeks of unemployment benefits for maternity leave. • birth control • pensions • day care • educational opportunities for women As a result, the Commission helped establish an agenda of reform for women's-rights groups in the 1970s. == See also ==