Canadian Women and the Constitution, 1981: Pursuing a Feminist Framework for Human Rights

VISIT THE EXHIBIT

On February 14th, 1981, over 1000 women from across Canada streamed into the West Block on Parliament Hill to attend the Ad Hoc Conference on Women and the Constitution. The conference was organized by an improvised committee who felt strongly about the need for Canadian women to have a voice in shaping the content of the Charter. Announced and planned in mere weeks through collaboration and sheer tenacity, the “Ad Hockers” invited women and women’s groups to participate in the Constitution building process.

To mark the 45th anniversary of the Ad Hoc Conference on Women and the Constitution, the following exhibit reconstructs the conference and surrounding events through an exploration of archival material held by the Archives and Special Collections (ARCS) at the University of Ottawa and the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections (CTASC) at York University. This exhibit was created in tandem with “The Virus of Inequality” symposium organized by Senator Marilou McPhedran, an original member of the Ad Hoc Committee.