Amy McBride uses The Ontarion as a primary source for her award-winning research
A University of Guelph Masters student has won the $2000 Government of Canada History Award for her work which focuses on the history of women’s liberation on campus. According to the Government of Canada website, the award “honour[s] outstanding students and teachers who show an interest in celebrating Canadian history.” The Ontarion sat down with McBride to discuss the inspiration for her research and how The Ontarion itself helped her win.
Leslie Thompson: First of all, congratulations! How did the idea for this thesis come about?
Amy McBride: The idea for my thesis came about during my undergraduate research project in 2011-2012. I was using The Ontarion to research what life was like for women students in Macdonald College in the 1960s. At that time, I was looking at how they created a female space on campus, and how they brought this space into the co-educational environment once the University of Guelph was established in 1964.
LT: How did The Ontarion help in your research?
AM: Using The Ontarion has provided me with a wealth of information unique to this campus. I wanted my thesis to focus on the women’s movement of the 1970s and to highlight the ways in which women students here at Guelph participated in that movement.
It has become an analysis of the lives of women students and assesses what they did to liberate themselves on this campus, and emphasizes what liberation meant to them… The Ontarion is a significant primary source because it was the media platform for the campus populace, and using it provides the best way to showcase the voices of students. It contains vast amounts of information pertaining to women students, and the articles I collected cover every issue that related to the liberation movement. However, using a newspaper does have its limitations and faults, including the fact that there were not many women on the editorial team at the beginning of the 1970s. The presence of women did increase throughout the decade though. Even though it took a few years to see more women editing The Ontarion, there were many women who contributed to the paper in the form of articles and letters, and specific sections were created by women, for women, so that women students would be kept up-to-date on women’s issues.
LT: On the awards website, you mention “liberation spaces” that were created by female students at the University of Guelph in the 1960s and 1970s. Can you expand on that?
AM: The creation of a female space on campus, and the presence of a female student voice went hand-in-hand with the educational reform of the 1960s, and the liberation of women in the 1970s. The focus of a woman’s university career shifted from being defined by home economics and obtaining a husband, to a focus on becoming active in numerous disciplines and obtaining a degree. These changes have had a lasting impact on modern academia and the ways in which women are treated at the University of Guelph. The women’s liberation movement inspired women at Guelph to participate in mass organizing and consciousness-raising. They rigorously and aptly used the platform of The Ontarion to raise awareness in areas pertinent to women’s liberation. Married student housing was created in the late 1960s, a daycare was finally opened at Guelph in 1975, women’s courses were added, birth control became accessible, and the fight to legalize abortion was well underway. The lasting effects of the changes made at Guelph during the 1960s and 1970s can be seen today as women students largely outnumber males, female professors and staff can be found across campus, and women-centered courses have become an essential part of interdisciplinary studies.
LT: How did these women at Guelph contribute to the wider conversation and movement of women’s rights and freedoms?
AM: Women students [at Guelph] made advances in the 1970s and garnered more respect on campus than in the 1960s. They held festivals and parades for women and took part in the 1970 Abortion Caravan from Vancouver when it made its way to Ottawa. They joined an Abortion March in 1971 and the Cross-Country Conference on Abortion in 1973. Positive action was taken when the United Nations declared 1975 International Women’s Year, as traditionally March 8 had been set aside as International Women’s Day. Women at Guelph held the only parade in the country for Women’s Year, proving that as a collective force they would, and could, be heard. They participated in any and all events relevant to women’s liberation, and they used The Ontarion to reach the campus populace.
LT: What would you say was the most interesting thing you discovered while doing your research?
AM: The most interesting thing I encountered while researching the lives of women students was to see that these women were not afraid to express themselves and to fight for their rights on this campus. The fact that they participated with the wider movement and made the fight for liberation a part of their daily lives is quite powerful. They connected with one another and succeeded in making changes at Guelph — changes that have made this campus what it is today. I feel privileged to be able to share the “herstory” of Guelph women students and hope that we can continue to share stories of our past here on this campus.