These groundbreaking articles advocated social
change long before the Americans had ever heard of Betty Friedan
or Ms. Magazine. In the 1960’s, Chatelaine was one of
the few places where women could sample feminist ideas. By
the time Anderson left, the magazine’s circulation had
more than tripled.
Writer June Callwood said, “Doris had a better agenda
of where she wanted to take women of this country than anybody
I knew. She had seen the issues. She understood how we were
going to have to change and where the changes were most needed.”
In 1981, Parliament was about to pass a Charter of Rights
that Anderson felt drastically undermined women’s rights.
As head of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, she
organized a conference so that women could discuss what was
at stake.
When the government pressured her to cancel the conference,
she resigned in protest. That triggered an uprising of women
from across the country who created the Ad Hoc Conference
on the Status of Women. The political fallout led to the clause
in the constitution that simply states that men and women
are equal under the law.
The film traces Anderson’s remarkable life through
interviews with her family, friends and colleagues including
many of the writers she helped to develop while at Chatelaine
such as Adrienne Clarkson, June Callwood, Sheila Kieran and
Michelle Landsberg.
Original Air Date - February 26, 1997
In November 2001, York University in Toronto established
The Doris Anderson Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Women’s
Studies to celebrate the 80th birthday of its namesake.
Links
Bio
from the National Library of Canada
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