The Life and Times of CAAWS
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The Life and Times of CAAWS Badminton player Dorothy Walton, the first Canadian winner of the prestigious All England championship in 1939 and chosen one of the six best women athletes of the L huteuretracel;biztoriquc& UAWS (Association canadienne half century. pour hvancement &S fcmmes hns ks sports et llactivitC Figure skaters Barbara Ann Scott, winner of two world p&sique), une associationfin&+ m 1981 pour addresser &S championships and an Olympic title in the 1940s; Karen Magnussen, the star of the 1970s, with gold, silver, and bronze from three world championships to go with her Olympicsilver; the feistyworldchampion Isabelle Brasseur, Girh 'and women ? port has been characterized skating through pain to an Olympic bronze medal in by low hveh ofparticipation; absence fFom 1994. Marathon swimmers Marilyn Bell, the first person to hadership positions; inequitabh deliuery rystems; swim Lake Ontario, in 1954, and the youngest person to minimal research; and scant coverage in the media. swim the English Channel one year later; Cindy Nicholas, who in 1976 was the women's world marathon swimming champion; and Vicky Keith, who has swum across each of probhes & sow-repriscntations dcs femmes hns tow &S the Great Lakes. domaines sportif;. Cet artick hnne aux hctrices un aperp Alpine skiers Lucile Wheeler, in the 1950s, with Olym- &S objecti$ et du travail & UA WS. pic bronze and, at the world championships, two gold and a silver; in 1960, Anne Heggtveit, Olympic gold and The roots of the Canadian Association for the Advance- double world championship gold; Nancy Greene, gold ment ofwomen and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) and silver at the 1968 Olympic Games and twice World reach deep, far deeper than most people realize. They go Cup champion; world champions Betsy Clifford in 1970 back to the late 19th century when Canadian women first and Kate Pace in 1993; and Olympic champions Kathy began to invade the male preserve that was sport. They go Kreiner in 1976 and Kerrin Lee-Gartner in 1992. back to 1925 when Alexandrine Gibb founded the Wom- "Mighty Mouse" Elaine Tanner, with two Olympic en's Amateur Athletic Federation, and for the first time silver medals and a bronze, described by her coach Howard gave women in sport an official voice. They go back Firby as "a water-born creature.. .touched with genius," through every decade of this century, each one distin- who at the 1968 Games, carried the unrelenting hopes of guished by magnificent performances by dozens of Cana- a nation on her shoulders; backstroker Nancy Garapick, a d. an women. world record holder in 1975 at the age of 13 and double We must not forget: Olympic medallist at 16. Speed skaters Lela Brooks with six world records in the Wheelchair racers Hilda May Torok Binns, winner in 1920s; Jean Wilson, an Olympic star dead in 1933 at the the '60s and '70s of 13 international gold medals, six age of 23; world champion Sylvia Burka, who dominated silvers, and five bronzes, and today's star, Chantal Petitclerc; thesport in the 1970s; and recently-retired multiple world blind discus and shotput world champion LjilijanaLjubisic; champion and double Olympic silver medallist Nathalie swimmer Joanne Mucz, winner of five Paralympic gold Lambert. medals; skiing sensation Lana Spreeman who has won ten Trackstars Bobbie Rosenfeld, Canadian woman athlete Paralympic medals; and Canada's world champion wheel- of the half century and winner of Olympic gold and silver chair basketball players. in 1928; her teammates Ethel Smith, Olympic gold and World champion archers Dorothy Lidstone in 1969 bronze, and Ethel Catherwood, "The Saskatoon Lily," and Lucille Lessard in 1974. world record holder and Olympic champion high jumper; Today there's biathlon double Olympic champion Canada's favourite high jumper Debbie Brill; and 1992 Myriam Bkdard; rowers Silken Laumann, Marnie Olympic medallist and triple Commonwealth middle McBean, Colleen Miller, and Wendy Wiebe; track star distance champion Angela Chalmers. Charmaine Crooks; synchronized swimmer Sylvie Golfer Ada Mackenzie, founder of the Toronto Lades' Frichette; kayaker Caroline Brunet; cyclists Tanya Golf and Tennis Club in 1924. Dubnicoff, Alison Sydor, and Linda Jackson; spring- The incredible Edmonton Grads basketball team, cred- board diver Annie Pelletier; trap shooter Susan Nattrass; ited with 502 wins and a mere 20 losses as they dominated swimmer Marianne Limpert; table tennis player Lijuan the game from 1915 to 1940. Geng; the Sandra Peterson rink, world curling charnpi- CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME ons for two years running; the women's national ice Sport Act were expressed in general terms and made no hockey team, winner of three world championships in a specific references to women, its purpose was dear: to row; and Olympic medallist Susan Auch, Canada's pre- make sport and fitness opportunities available to all Cana- mier long track speed skater.. dians. The passage of the Act was significant because it officially committed the federal government, for the first The other side of the picture time, to the promotion and development of amateur sport. What has all this success to do with WWS, an organi- Established in 1967 to inquire into thestatus ofwomen, zation dedicated to improving opportunities for girls and the Royal Commission revealed that fewer girls than boys women? Don't the victories indicate that all is well in the participated in sports in Canadian schools. Its report world of Canadian sport? In fact, the successes are mis- included two recommendations addressing the issue of leading; they blind most Canadians to the truth-the female participation in sports programs. roots of Recom- CMWS lie in mendation the consist- 77 called ent under- for the representa- provinces tion of wo- and territo- men in all ries to re- facets of view their sport that policies to has left wo- ensure that men mute school pro- and frus- grams pro- trated. That vide girls all these wo- and boys men, and so with equal many more, opportuni- have suc- ties to par- ceeded, bor- ticipate. It ders on the also urged miraculous the estab- because lishment of Canada's policies and wws," wws sport system, "Founding Mothers of 1981 Photo: Courtesy of practices to & far as equity is concerned, has long left much to be motivate desired. and encourage girls to be active in sport. Girls' and women's sport has traditionally been charac- Recommendation 78 suggested research to find out terized by low levels of participation; absence from lead- why fewer girls than boys were participating in school ership positions in administration and coaching, at all sport programs and to develop a strategy for change. levels and in every area; inequitable delivery systems; Early in 1974, with the leadership of Marion Lay, the minimal research; and scant, often demeaning, coverage federal government's Fitness and Amateur Sport Branch in the media. (FASB) sponsored a National Conference on Women and Change for women in sport began slowly, and progress Sport. Athletes, coaches, educators, administrators, and can be marked by several milestones-the Fitness and researchers gathered to explore the issues raised by the Amateur Sport Act of 1961 (Bill C-131); the report of the recommendations of the Royal Commission. The confer- Royal Commission on the Status ofwomen in 1970; the ence, which today is pinpointed as the beginning of the National Conference on Women in Sport in 1974; the women's movement in sport and fitness, produced action launching of Sport Canada's Women's Program in 1980; proposals and the strategies for change. What was missing, the Female Athlete Conference in 1981 and the establish- however, was the means to monitor the process and ment by Sport Canada ofa Women in Sport program; the implement the rec~m~nendations. Constitution Act of 1982; the establishment in 1986 by A study completed in March 1980 provided a push. Sport Canada of a formal policy on Women in Sport; the Study author Pam Lewis confirmed that women were Minister's Task Force Report in 1992; and the landmark indeed under-represented in leadership in sport at the decision of the Canadian Sport Council to include gender national level. Commenting at the time, Susan Vail, equity quotas in their operating principles. Manager of the Women's Program said that the simple Although the provision of the Fitness and Amateur fact was that men's athletic needs-locally, provincially, VOLUME 15, NUMBER 4 17 nationally, and internationally-had generally been met, location; liaison; research; education; promotion; advo- while women's needs had not. cacy; and monitoring and evaluation. The ability of the That same year, a Female Athlete Conference, spon- policy to effect change was, however, limited by a very sored by FMB and organized by Anne Popma, was held small budget. As well, there was no accountability frame- at Simon Fraser University to evaluate issues relevant to work to ensure that national sport organizations would women in sport and examine the structural inequities of implement the policy and make a commitment to gen- Canada's sport system. Participants, who included such der equity. stellar athletes as Karen Magnussen, Susan Nattrass, As one of the targeted issues in the 1992 Task Force Carol Bishop, and Report (Best, Black- Beverly Boys, pro- hurst, and Makosky), posed explicit strat- women were encour- egies to break aged to expect that down barriers and their desire for change change the strcture was well on its way to of sport. The con- being fulfilled. Ac- ference also served cording to the report, as the catalyst for the establishment .. the pace of in- later that year of volving and advanc- Sport Canada's ing girls and women Women's Program across the sport con- to develop and pro- tinuum, and in all mote the involve- levels ofsport organi- ment of women in zations, must be sig- sport and fitness nificantlyaccelerated activities, and for in order to display the founding of fair and equitable CMWS.