Saskatchewan officially proclaimed Sept. 14 as Canadian Federation of University Women Day, and Prince Albert’s local CFUW chapter plans to use the occasion to turn the spotlight on homelessness.
Anna Dinsdale, the Community Safety and Well-Being Manager for the City of Prince Albert, will be the guest speaker when the Prince Albert CFUW gathers for their General Meeting on Wednesday. CFUW president Barb Gustafson said they asked the YWCA’s Donna Brooks to speak on the issue last year, and wanted to keep the focus there this year.
“This is an ongoing issue,” Gustafson said. “That is something where Anna’s name came up. I know that her work is wider than just homelessness. We certainly want to hear about what’s going on in our city, and perhaps there’s a way we can help as well.”
This is the third year Saskatchewan has proclaimed a CFUW Day. Gustafson said it means a lot to have the organization’s long history of advocacy for women’s rights recognized.
The CFUW’s focus has expanded in recent years. The Prince Albert chapter was founded in 1931, but the national organization has been around since 1919. In the beginning, they focused on provincial projects, like advocating for Saskatchewan’s first regional library. Today, they still advocate locally and fundraise to pay for high school and mature student scholarships, but their international focus has increased.
CFUW is a part of Graduate Women International (GWI), which is currently hosting a conference in Zambia. They are supporting an international project to bring education to girls in rural areas of the country.
Part of that change is due to changing demographics. In 1919, women were a rarity on University campuses. Now they make up the majority of students. Statistics Canada reported roughly 58 per cent of Canadian University students were women during the 2021-22 school year.
Gustafson said it’s great to see so many Canadian women furthering their education, but there are other areas of the world were women do not have that option.
“I think at times as Canadians … we take things for granted,” she said. “When we say something like ‘there’s more women than men on a university campus’ we kind of take for granted that women have access to all the education they need, all the rights that they should be entitled to, but it’s not true, especially on a worldwide scale.
“To some extent it’s not true within our own country as well so there’s still a need to speak out. I think things are kind of cycling around. It’s almost like 100 years later we have to reconsider things.”
The CFUW Prince Albert General Meeting begins at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the University of Saskatchewan’s PA campus. Gustafson said new members are welcome to attend. A university degree is not necessary to join the organization.
