Beginnings of Women’s Caucus
By Liz Briemberg
In May 1968 many students at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. were deeply embroiled in issues regarding student democracy, the radicalization of the Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology (PSA) department, and links with the larger community outside of the University. An organization was formed called the Student Democratic University (SDU) and some students, including those in the nascent women’s organization, held a sit-in at the Board room of the University which evolved into an action for Child Day care and the Board room became a day-care centre.
Demonstrations were frequent, a strike was held in September 1968 of which one of the demands was that the University should be oriented more to workers’ needs than to that of business interests. The students occupied the main Administration building which led to the University obtaining an injunction from the BC Supreme Court; 114 students were arrested and the PSA department was put under trusteeship by the University administration. Through all this many women activists felt that they ‘were just appendages’ to the student movement due to gender inequities taken for granted by the male student leadership.
Two women students, Marcy Toms and Doreen (Dodie) Weppler, who enrolled in a PSA course taught by Martin Nicolaus, were asked to rewrite The Communist Manifesto and in doing so they decided to address the role of women in social movements. After complaining about the treatment they experienced in the SFU student movement they were given a pamphlet Sisters, Brothers, Lovers …. Listen by Jim Harding, one of the student leaders. This had been written by four Toronto women, active in the Student Union for Peace Action – Judy Bernstein, Peggy Morton, Linda Seese and Myrna Wood – in the Fall of 1967. It was part of the organizing by these women of the first women’s liberation group in Canada. After being introduced to this document, Dodie and Marcy wrote a Manifesto calling for the establishment of a feminist action league. This led to them deciding to go ahead and call a meeting of women activists in early July 1968. More meetings followed and the group eventually renamed itself ‘The Vancouver Women’s Caucus’ and it became a ‘club’ of the Student Society. However, when meeting they were often subjected to ridicule and harassment by male students and even had to lock the door of their meeting room to prevent such students from entering.
While SFU women students were the majority of the membership, there were some women faculty, notably Andrea Lebowitz and Margaret Benston, and some women workers, such as clerical workers, who were also attracted. Almost immediately, differences emerged between those wanting to be a in a politically oriented group and those who were looking for a psychological approach involving consciousness raising. The first group won out. Some of the second group left and the Vancouver Women’s Caucus developed an explicitly political role, focusing on organizing and acting upon specific feminist concerns. During much of the summer and Fall of 1968 the Caucus members provided a number of educationals and guerrilla theatre skits on Women’s oppression (Pedestal Vol 2 no. 1 & no. 2), both on and off campus – in SFU classes, high schools and even the McGill Library, one of the Burnaby libraries. They also provided, in a fairly clandestine manner, information on how to access abortion services, which at that time were outlawed in Canada.
Given the interest of the students in being involved with the community outside the University and given the number of working class women in the group, the decision to move off campus was made in early 1969. Through connections with some Unions the Vancouver Women’s Caucus, was able to rent an office at the Labour Temple, 307 West Broadway, Vancouver. The first public meeting was held there on International Women’s Day 1969 and Caucus meetings were held there regularly through the rest of 1969.
The first Women’s Caucus newsletter was written in August 1969. It informed the membership that the Labour Temple office was available for groups and meetings every Thursday and that there would be a regular business meeting on the fourth Thursday of every month. It also noted that there was to be a meeting on Day Care for early September. Contact people were listed for committees that had been formed on Education, Labour, a Women’s artist coop and the Campuses at SFU, UBC and VCC. In addition, this newsletter advertised times for regular discussion group.
A Western Regional Conference was held at Thanksgiving Day weekend in October. Women were invited from Alberta, Saskatchewan, California, Oregon, and Washington, and the theme was to be ‘Women – Reform or revolution’. A list of papers for discussion was included and reports from the Education committee and the Women’s Artists Co-op. See invitation letter written by Marge Hollibaugh.
This was the first of seven newsletters which detail the activities of the Caucus and it was the fore-runner of The Pedestal which printed its first edition in the Fall of 1969.
When Maggie Benston acted as secretary for the Nov. 14, 1969 issue, she included a two-page personal assessment of how Women’s Caucus was doing, and how it could be more successful attracting and involving more women without a leadership structure in the organization. (Women’s Caucus: A History and Analysis by Maggie Benston, written in November 1970)
By November 1969 the Caucus had 250 women on its mailing list and twelve ‘action’ groups – abortion campaign; legal; education/teachers (Pedestal vol. 1 no. 1, vol. 2 no. 7, vol 3 no. 4 & no. 7); book workshop; Pedestal; orientation; finance; women’s artist co-op; newsletter, VCC; SFU; and UBC.
In May 1970, the Caucus announced the demise of the newsletter, promising to use the Pedestal as the main means of communications with its own members. Except, it did publish another one in June 1970 with “extra news that didn’t fit in the Pedestal” and again in February 1971 to make a special appeal for help with distributing the Pedestal, organizing the upcoming Indochinese Women’s Conference (Pedestal vol. 3 no. 3 & no. 5) and attending a film series in honour of International Women’s Day.
Related Materials
How Did the Canadian Women’s Liberation Movement Emerge from the Sixties Student Movements?
The Case of Simon Fraser University by Roberta Lexier, Women and Social Movements in America, 1600-2000 Vol.13, No.2 (Fall 2009)
SFU uses Caucus history to teach research
When SFU celebrated its 40th anniversary, SFU prepared a commemorative display poster to help students learn archival research: See Janiel Jolley protesting Miss Canadian University beauty contest; see founders of SFU’s women’s studies department – Andrea Lebowitz & Maggie Benston; enjoy original cartoon by My American Cousin film director Sandy Wilson.
