U OF O LIBRARY HOSTS COMMEMORATIVE EVENT FOR PERSONS DAY
On Oct. 18, the Right Honourable Kim Campbell, the first and only woman to serve as Prime Minister of Canada, commemorated Persons Day with a speech at the University of Ottawa’s Demarais building to a crowd of politicians and former public servants. The event, “The Power of Women’s Voices in Public Life,” was hosted by the Women’s History Project, in collaboration with the Famous Five Foundation, the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, and the University of Ottawa with the support of the Library’s Women’s Archives Initiative.
Featured speakers of this event included Famous Five chair Beatrice Keleher Raffoul, U of O President Jacques Frémont, President and cofounder of the Women’s History Project Deborah Davis, Famous Five mentee Sofia Herczegh, Global Dignity Canada chair Giovanna Mingarelli, and Famous Five board member Komal Minhas. The event was emceed by University Librarian and Dean of Libraries Talia Chung.
The speeches detailed the history of Persons Day: the anniversary of the British Privy Council’s 1929 decision that recognized white, Protestant Christian women as “persons” under the law. Raffoul, Davis, Herczegh, Mingarelli and Minhas chronicled their journeys combating systemic misogyny and spoke of the importance of dismantling sexist stereotypes.
In her speech, Campbell stated that women’s “entire personhood is very often ignored, or disrespected” and highlighted the importance of “chang[ing] the narrative.” She cited the example of Eunice Foote, the first scientist to document the Greenhouse effect, whose work was attributed to a man who published his findings years after she did.
“We have to rediscover and rearticulate existing accomplishments,” Campbell said. “We have to tell [these stories] because that’s how people learn how the world works.”
In reshaping these narratives, Campbell believes, people can begin to dismantle “so many different myths about sex differences that really make it hard, often, for women to be seen as the strengths that they are.”
The latter half of the “Power of Women’s Voices” event was an interview of Campbell by Minhas. The two discussed women’s progress in governmental representation and the impact of Campbell’s term as Prime Minister on women’s prospects today.
Minhas asked Campbell about the 1993 election and if she felt the Progressive Conservative party “threw her under the bus.” Campbell recognized that she was upset by the lack of support she received from her party but did not “think of herself as a victim.”
However, she states that there is a long way to go to achieve true representation in politics. In an interview with the Fulcrum, Campbell was asked about her 2017 remarks to Parliament where she said “the landscape of politics needs to change.” She believes “we’ve made progress but we’re not done.”
“As long as there is a capacity for more women to participate,” Campbell said. “then I think we have to keep pushing to get consolidated…and raise money for their campaigns.”
When speaking about the barriers women today face in being elected to national political positions, Campbell thinks that “often, it’s the parties themselves that are the most difficult.”
“A lot of times, the voters are quite happy to vote or figure that women are pretty good at their jobs and can serve them well,” Campbell said. “The structure is slowly changing.”
As for when Campbell believes Canada will have its next female prime minister, “not soon enough.”
