Full transcript
0:00♪ [ up be at ]
0:01Announcer: The Royal Commission on the Status of Women.
0:05This landmark investigation into,
0:07well, the status of women in Canada,
0:09dove into issues of law, employment, poverty,
0:12child-care, and equal access.
0:14Its mandate?
0:15Recommend steps that the government could take...
0:22So 50 years later, what's changed
0:25and what hasn't?
0:26This is...
0:30By 1967, women's rights had improved
0:33from Confederation times--
0:34as in, we could vote!
0:36And we were persons under the law!
0:37It had taken decades to get even that far.
0:40100 years had passed since Confederation
0:42and still, women earned less than men
0:45for the same work.
0:46We didn't have access to the same types of jobs,
0:48regardless of education.
0:49A divorced woman could not have her own legal residence.
0:52And over 50 percent of senior women lived in poverty.
0:55First Nations women could lose their Indian status
0:58if they married someone without status.
0:59Women of colour were struggling
1:01with racial discrimination.
1:03Being gay could get you thrown in jail.
1:05And a man couldn't be charged with various sexual offenses
1:09unless the victim had, and I'm quoting here, a...
1:13[record scratches]
1:14I'm sorry, what the hell?!
1:16So we called bull and took to the streets.
1:19Cut to 1967.
1:21After months of campaigning
1:23from a coalition of women's groups,
1:24Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson
1:26convened a Royal Commission on The Status of Woman,
1:28aka, The Bird Commission, on February 16.
1:32Some men, like these journalists,
1:34wondered why the commission was even needed.
1:36Don't women have a pretty good status
1:38in Canada now, Mrs. Bird?
1:39Well, I think that they have a very good status
1:42but they're not quite sure what it is yet.
1:44And a great many women feel
1:46that perhaps they're being discriminated against
1:48when they go to work because they aren't paid as much as men,
1:51or because they don't get the promotions
1:52even though they work just as hard
1:54or sometimes more than the man who's put ahead of them.
1:56Announcer: Maybe they needed a commission
1:58because her name plate read "Mrs. John Bird."
2:01By the time the commission was completed,
2:03there was a whole new Prime Minister.
2:05And the report?
2:06Just a little light reading.
2:08Only 488 pages and 167 separate recommendations,
2:12from legal access to first-trimester abortions
2:15to a guaranteed annual income for single parents.
2:18And to its credit, the government implemented
2:20recommendations almost immediately.
2:22Some of them, anyway.
2:24They created a new Minister for the Status of Women,
2:27though the first four were dudes.
2:31The government increased representation
2:32on all government boards, departments,
2:34commissions, councils, advisory committees
2:36and task forces.
2:37Eventually, a woman even became Prime Minister-- briefly.
2:42Though it did take a little while before 50 percent
2:44of Federal Cabinet Ministers were women.
2:46Because it's 2015.
2:49[cheering]
2:51Announcer: The legal age for marriage was raised to 18,
2:53or 16 with parental consent.
2:55On the other side of the coin,
2:57a woman getting a divorce could now legally claim
2:59she deserved half of the assets.
3:00It took until 1985, but eventually First Nations women
3:04could keep their Indian status
3:05and pass it onto their children
3:07even when marrying someone without it.
3:09It became illegal to recruit for any job
3:11based on gender or marital status.
3:13And of course, the whole "previously chaste character"
3:16garbage got dealt with right quick.
3:18In 1983. What?
3:20It took 13 years?
3:22So, change was happening.
3:24It was just really slow.
3:26Even 10 years later, only 43 of the recommendations
3:29had been implemented;
3:3171 hadn't been touched at all.
3:33And progress since then has been spotty.
3:36For example, the commission set out to address
3:38the wage gap between men and women,
3:39but it's still a major problem.
3:42It's disappointing to see that across the board,
3:44women remain underpaid,
3:46their work remains undervalued,
3:48and overall they remain unequal with a large wage gap,
3:51despite the fact that women now have slightly higher
3:55education levels overall.
3:56Announcer: Stay-at-home caregivers --
3:57let's face it, mostly mothers--
3:59still can't contribute to the Canada Pension Plan.
4:02There's still no national child care policy.
4:05And senior women and single mothers
4:06are still more likely to live in poverty.
4:10And marginalized groups?
4:11The commission never even discussed
4:12the challenges facing women of colour.
4:15The idea that women arriving as refugees
4:17might have specific needs?
4:18Never addressed.
4:20And while the LGBTQ community has made legal gains
4:22over the past 50 years,
4:24the Commission had nothing to do with it.
4:27Then there's violence against women.
4:29The very idea that sexual assault could happen
4:31within a marriage didn't even become law until 1983.
4:35And yet, with all that, the report
4:37was still a major leap forward for women in Canada.
4:40As the lawyer Pamela Cross put it in 2000,
4:43"Many women found their first political voices
4:45"through connections with the Commission,
4:46"and many more found their lives enriched
4:48because of its work."
4:49And as Royal Commissions go...
4:51More of those recommendations have been implemented
4:53than those any other royal commission
4:55we've ever had in Canada, which isn't too bad.
4:57Announcer: So in that light, The Royal Commission
5:00on the Status of Women started a long overdue conversation.
5:03But as far as women in Canada have come,
5:05from all walks of life,
5:06there's still a lot to talk about.
5:09♪ ♪
5:10"Previously chaste character" my [bleep].