Transforming Catholic women's education in the sixties: Sister Catherine Wallace's feminist leadership at Mount Saint Vincent University
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Date
2017
Authors
MacDonald, Heidi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Queen's University
Abstract
Sister Catherine Wallace (1917-91) was president of Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU), Canada’s only degree-granting women’s post-secondary institution, from 1965 to 1974. Wallace’s appointment coincided with a transformative era not only in the North American post-secondary landscape, but also in the Roman Catholic Church and the women’s movement. Wallace was acutely aware that this combination of factors would require a transformation of MSVU itself for the institution to survive the next decade. Wallace ultimately strengthened MSVU’s identity and gave it a more outward-looking vision by embedding many of the goals of second-wave feminism, including the recommendations of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada (1970), in the University’s renewal. She also gave the university a more national profile through her work on the executive of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), including in 1973 as their first woman president.
Description
Open access article
Keywords
Catherine Wallace , Post-secondary education , Mount Saint Vincent University , Feminism , Royal Commission on the Status of Women , Women's university , Sister Catherine Wallace
Citation
MacDonald, H. (2017). Transforming Catholic women's education in the sixties: Sister Catherine Wallace's feminist leadership at Mount Saint Vincent University. Encounters in Theory and History of Education, 18, 53-77. https://doi.org/10.24908/eoe-ese-rse.v18i0.6910