Women’s and Gender Studies

Event to highlight women performers

Phog Lounge is the setting for Smash the Glass, an evening of voice and action for women’s studies students, Thursday, October 17.

Events to celebrate International Women’s Day 2013

Two events on campus this week will celebrate International Women’s Day.

A panel discussion Monday, March 25, will break open historical, theoretical and activist perspectives in 21st-century debates on weight, size, space and women’s bodies.

“Fat is still a feminist issue” will continue the discussion ignited by Susie Orbach’s best-selling book.

Rights of Aboriginal women subject of Tuesday discussion

Until 1985, First Nations women who married non-status men lost their status under Canada’s Indian Act, even though men who married non-status women were able to pass their status on to their wives and children. The effects of this discrimination are still being felt in many communities today.

In a free public event, “Aboriginal Women v. Canada,” Jeannette Corbière Lavell and Dawn Lavell Harvard discuss the losses experienced by First Nations women and their children as a result of gender discrimination in the Indian Act.

Panel to discuss gender and religious equity issues

Questions of balancing religious and legal rights are the focus of a panel discussion Friday, entitled “Legislating What Women Can Wear: The Niqab in the Courtroom.”

Three panelists will discuss a current case before the Supreme Court of Canada involving a Muslim sexual assault victim who refused to remove her full face veil during courtroom testimony.

Events to celebrate the Women Behind The Charter

The Distinguished Visitor in Women’s Studies program this year will honour a diverse group—activists whose struggles helped to enshrine gender equality in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Their vision and determination have made it possible for us to live in a country that values fairness and justice for women,” says Anne Forrest, director of the women’s studies program.