Letter to the Editor

Les Québécoises

Jean-Philippe Warren "underscores that Quebec has been at the forefront of movements establishing equality for women in the 1980s" according to your April 19th, 2007 issue. When I arrived in Quebec in the late 1960s from western Canada, I was shocked to find that as a married woman I was not allowed to sign a lease on an apartment but was asked to obtain my husband's signature. Only after arguing that my husband would not arrive in Montreal for another couple of months was my signature accepted.

Further, I vividly recall waiting for my surgeon to arrive to perform a tubal ligation in 1974, only for the procedure to be held up by a nurse rushing in saying that the operation could not be performed because my husband had not signed authorizing the operation. Since I considered asking such permission an indignity, the operation was held up until the surgeon who was a friend of my husband and myself, growled this was nonsense and proceeded.

And finally, remember that women were not allowed to serve on jury duty until the early 1970s when a female defendant was brought to trial following the political assassination of Pierre LaPorte. If Quebec subsequently moved to the forefront in establishing equality for women in the 1980s, it was probably because it had such a long way to go compared to the rest of Canada.

Dolores Pushkar, Ph.D.
Professor, Centre for Research in Human Development &
Psychology Department