University of Toronto Women's Newsmagazine
Periodical profile published 1983

Year Published:  1983
Resource Type:  Serial Publication (Periodical)
Cx Number:  CX2759

Abstract: 
The UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO WOMEN'S NEWSMAGAZINE is published by a feminist collective committee to "building a strong independent women's voice on campus." An editorial in the September 1982 edition outlines how women's issues are systematically ignored at U. of T. The Equal Opportunity Office has been closed, the Women's Studies Deparment has been consistently underfunded, and women are disproportionately under-represented in positions of authority on campus. The Administration has avoided developing a policy on sexual harrassment, and "refuses to acknowledge that a campus serving over 50,000 people require more than sixty day care spaces."

The NEWSMAGAZINE collective also condemns the actions of the Student Administrative Council (SAC). While spending "lavish amounts of money on ski days and maintaining stables". it has not supported the development of women's centre, nor has it offered sufficient or free self-defense courses for women. SAC's abortion counselling and referral policy "is dictated by a small minority of males (led by St. Michael's College), resulting in this service being controlled and restricted by those who will never need it."

SAC and the Administration have also failed to prohibit the circulation of "hate literature and media that promote violence against women on campus." The Engineering Society continues to publish "The Toike", which has been condemned by the Ontario Human Rights Commission and campus groups because of "its repeated sexist, racist and homophobic content.:"

Collective members believe that "an integral part of feminism is the recognition of, and struggle against the many other forms of social oppression - racism, anti-semitism, economic exploitation, hetrerosexism, and discrimination against the physically and mentally disabled. The articles in the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO WOMEN'S NEWSMAGAZINE promote an awareness of these links and provide "a forum for analysis and development of feminist theorgy."