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The Women’s Studies Program – an academic arm of the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) – brought feminism into our classrooms, our curriculum, and our collegial relations, as well as college-wide committees and policies.

With the most diverse student population in the Quebec CEGEP system, we applied the maxim “the personal is political” to the content of our courses, to developing feminist pedagogy, and to our way of operating as a collective – seeking consensus in decision-making and programming. We shared the perspectives of our various disciplines—often questioning the methodology of the disciplines themselves – as we sought proactive ways to explore the complexities of sex, gender, social justice and inequality in all of their forms and effects. And we spent time together: team-teaching, potluck dinners, nature hikes, policy development, a week of International Women’s Day activities, an annual Champagne Breakfast. We listened. We advocated. We found support in each other and ways to make a lasting feminist contribution to Vanier College.

Shirley L. Pettifer. Sociology, Women’s Studies, Explorations