1950

Addie Wyatt

Wyatt was the first person to be elected as an International Vice-President of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters union. She began her career in packing plants like Armour & Company and the Illinois Meat Packing Company. Wyatt worked for 20 years as organizer, negotiator, and program coordinator.

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1951

The International Labour Organization (ILO) passes Convention 100, calling for “equal pay for equal work." Between 1951 and 1959, the federal government and a number of provinces pass equal pay legislation. However, Canada did not ratify Convention 100 until 1972.

By 1951, Indigenous women were legally allowed to vote if they were willing to give up their native status.

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Iona Samis

Iona Samis, right, with the Canadian Director of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), Fred Dowling (left), and Cesar Chavez (centre)

Samis was a meat plant worker and UPWA activist since 1947. In 1966, she was elected as the first female vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). An inexhaustible political activist, Samis served as the NDP’s first budget chief and juggled multiple bank accounts to help keep the young party alive.

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1970

During this period, 39.9% of women aged 15 and older were particpiating in the labour force. However, the average annual earnings of women working full-time represented only 59.7% of what their male colleagues earned. Women’s shelters were also formed during this period, and numerous strikes for maternity leave and parental leave were conducted across Canada.

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1971

Quebec finally allows women jurors after eight women were jailed earlier in the year for protesting an all-male jury law.

The federal government amends tthe Canada Labour Code to prohibit sex discrimination, reinforce equal pay for equal work, and establish a 17-week maternity leave.

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1972

Rosemary Brown, NDP MLA

Brown served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for British Columbia’s New Democratic Party (NDP). She was the first black woman to be elected to political office in Canada.

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1976

The first Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Women’s Conference is held.

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1980

Alexa McDonough

McDonough becomes the first woman to be elected leader of a provincial political party while holding a seat in the legislature (Nova Scotia).

Jeanne-Mathilde Sauve

Sauve was the first woman to be chosen as a Speaker of the House of Commons. She was an Indigenous woman from Saskatchewan who served in the House until January 15, 1984. Sauve went on to become the 23rd Governor General of Canada.

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1981

Concerned about women’s rights being excluded from the proposed new Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1,300 women meet and lobby Members of Parliament and succeed in getting women’s rights included in Canada’s constitution.
 

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1982

The Canadian Constitution Act declares that Aboriginal and Treaty Rights are guaranteed equally to men and women.

1983

The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits sexual harassment in workplaces that fall under federal jurisdiction.

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1984

Six women are elected to “affirmative action seats” at the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Council.

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1985

Jeanette Corbiere Lavell

In 1971, serving as the Ontario Women’s Association President, Corbiere-Lavell launches a court challenge to overturn sex discrimination in the Indian Act. The law is eventually changed in 1985 so that Indigenous women who marry non-status men can retain their Indian status.

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1986

Shirley Carr

Carr is chosen to lead the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), becoming the first woman President of the CLC.
 

Marie-Josée Lemieux

Lemieux joined UFCW Canada Local 503 in 1986 as a 19-year-old store clerk. In 2001, she became the first women to head a large UFCW Canada local union. Tragically, Lemieux died suddenly in March 2005, when she was only 40 years old.

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1988

Pay equity complaints are filed by individual Bell Canada employees.

A resolution is passed at the UFCW Canadian Council Conference to appoint a “Women’s Issue Coordinator."
 

1989

On December 6, 1989, at the Ecolab Polytechnique de Montreal, 14 female engineer students are massacred by a man who believed he was killing feminists.

UFCW Canada appoints its first staff person responsible for women’s issues - Sue Yates.

1989 also marks the establishment of the UFCW Canadian Council Women’s Advisory Committee.
 

Audrey McLaughlin

McLaughlin becomes the first female leader of a federal political party (the NDP) with sitting members. She was first elected to the House of Commons in 1987 as the MP for Yukon.

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1991 - 1992

Bell Canada, CEP, and CTEA undertake a Joint Pay Equity Study. The Canadian Human Rights Commission uses the joint study as the basis for assessing pay equity complaints. The Final Report of the joint study finds that women are underpaid.

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Rita Margaret Johnson

Johnson becomes the first woman in Canada to serve as premier of a province after she succeeds Bill Vander Zalm in British Columbia on April 2, 1991.

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1999

UFCW Canada holds its first independent women’s conference in Calgary with the theme “We Can Do It.” Two years later, UFCW Canada holds its second women's conference in Winnipeg, with the theme “Organizing our Future.”

Tawney Meiorin

Meiorin was a British Columbia forest firefighter. Despite a satisfactory job performance, she had been laid off due to a new physical fitness test that was based on men’s abilities. The test had little to do with a person's ability to actually perform the job. In response to a court challenge brought forward by Meiorin's union (the British Columbia Government Service Employees' Union), the Supreme Court ruled that job standards and tests cannot solely be based on capabilities that favour men.

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