Equity Matters

Apr 8

Maternal health and Canada's global gender equality ranking

Kathleen A. Lahey, Queen’s University
Guest Contributor

This blog post is part of the Federation Equity Issues Portfolio’s series marking the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

In 2010, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) adopted a new gender equality measure that dropped Canada from number 8 on sex equality issues to number 16. The new Gender Inequality Index (GII) places more emphasis on how well resources, opportunities, and incomes are shared by women and men in each country, and less emphasis on Canada’s wealth.

Upon receiving the World Health Organisation’s (...

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Apr 7

On tolerance, the ethos of intolerance, and intellectual courage

Frank Furedi, Kent University-Canterbury
Guest Contributor

This blog entry is part of the Equity Issues Portfolio’s series on ‘interculturalism and pluralism’.

What do John Beddington, Britain’s chief scientific adviser, and Ryszard Legutko, leader of Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice party, have in common? Both believe that intolerance is a virtue, and that it should be celebrated.

Legutko, a vociferous critic of the gay rights movement, has written a book called Why I Am Not Tolerant...

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Apr 5

Locating my Indian self in the academy's tenure process

Shanne McCaffrey, University of Victoria
Guest Contributor

This blog post is part of the Federation Equity Issues Portfolio’s ‘Transforming the Academy: Indigenous Education’ series, which will be the focus of the Portfolio’s programming at Congress 2011.

When I began to prepare my portfolio for the tenure process, little did I realize how incredibly difficult this was going to be, from a location that is, for many Indigenous scholars, devoid of spirit, identity, culture and Indigenous traditions. When I prepared my portfolio I inserted many pieces, gifts that...

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Mar 30

Social power, inequality and the 'tone of voice' argument

Gloria Filax, Athabasca University
Guest Contributor

One of my first realizations that in some situations what I had to say was less important than how I was perceived to have said it occurred in grade two. I had asked my teacher to let us practice our numbers at our desk instead of at the board because, I offered, we could practice without being watched by our friends.  She gave me a withering look and said, “I don’t like your tone of voice, young lady.”

I knew not to say, “But what does my tone of voice have to do with wanting to practice at my desk instead in front of my friends?”

As a young adult when I...

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Mar 26

'Inclusive excellence': new approaches on equity and diversity in a plural society

Good afternoon from the Annual Conference of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. We’ll have live commentary here on our blog, as well as an audio feed of the day available online here.

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Mar 25

Multiculturalism, citizenship and human freedom

Cecil Foster, University of Guelph
Guest Contributor

This blog entry is part of the Equity Issues Portfolio’s series on ‘interculturalism, multiculturalism and pluralism’.

Multiculturalism is the modern name for an ideal that people can live freely in raceless societies. It is for this reason the ‘death of multiculturalism’ as proclaimed in some European circles might be much exaggerated. If multiculturalism were to die what would be its replacement, how can different ethnicities be integrated fully into societies without forcing those who are very...

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Mar 21

Combating racism, embracing discomfort: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Darren Lund, University of Calgary
Guest Contributor

“Overcoming racism compels us to address public policies and private attitudes that perpetuate it. On this International Day, I call on Member States, international and non-governmental organizations, the media, civil society and all individuals to engage meaningfully in the promotion of the International Year for People of African descent – and to work together against racism whenever it occurs.” – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 21 March 2011.

Doing anti-...

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Mar 17

Multiculturalism, interculturalism and their skeptics

Avigail I. Eisenberg, University of Victoria
Guest Contributor

This blog entry is part of the Equity Issues Portfolio’s series on ‘interculturalism, multiculturalism and pluralism’.

Two challenges are invoked by critics of multiculturalism today and are associated with the retreat of multiculturalism in Europe and Quebec. The first challenge comes from those I’ll call ‘identity skeptics’ who point out that cultural or religious identity is just too...

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Mar 15

Don’t Tell Us Who We Are (Not): Reflections on Métis identity

Joyce Green, University of Regina
Guest Contributor

This blog post is part of the Federation Equity Issues Portfolio’s ‘Transforming the Academy: Indigenous Education’ series, which will be the focus of the Portfolio’s programming at Congress 2011.

After having messed up Indian and Inuit identity for over 140 years, the federal government has just passed Bill C-3, yet another inadequate amendment to address gender inequity in the membership provisions of the Indian Act. Now the federal government proposes to study and regulate...

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