With The University of Western Ontario facing the possibility of layoffs, a fear that women may feel the brunt of such a move is creating stress on campus, according to speakers at a campus meeting.
Anthropology professor and incoming UWOFA president Regna Darnell says there is “a climate of fear and a sense of mistrust” within the faculty ranks. The ongoing financial situation and the need for the university to trim the budget leave women faculty more vulnerable than men.
While women make up about 30 per cent of full-time faculty, the majority are in positions of assistant professors.
“That’s where we see the problems. They are vulnerable to job loss,” says Darnell, speaking at Western’s Caucus on Women’s Issues annual general meeting. “We have come a long way but are nowhere near where we want to be on any level.
“There has been a growth in women faculty being hired, but all in junior positions and that bothers me a lot. They are more vulnerable at this point in their career.”
The sentiment is similar on the staff side, academic counsellor Stephanie Macleod told the group. She says she’s ready to retire at 65, but “the problem is most of us can’t.”
Having recently lost $40,000 from her pension, she admits she would be getting less from it than her Canada Pension Plan after working 20 years at Western.
“We are not experts in this and are going in with blind faith,” says Macleod. “But the messages were not conveyed to us properly. Instead the message is a feeling of not being able to retire and that is causing a lot of stress.”
She described the retirement incentive package as a modest proposal, noting one provision that employees not work at Western again sounded like punishment.
“They are shutting out a pool of experienced workers who could fill potential vacancies down the road, even on a part-time basis,” she says.
Macleod says there is fear among staff and that departments are stressed that gender equity will get smothered in the process.
“Women and other staff might tolerate treatment they might not otherwise in order to keep their jobs. The university has a moral obligation to do everything in their part not to cut the heart out of its family members and seek alternatives that I know are out there.”
Gitta Kulczycki, Vice-President (Resources & Operations), says it isn’t known at this point how the potential layoffs will affect women. She expects layoffs to be based on faculty and department leaders’ assessments about how to reconfigure work within their areas.
However, she challenged the notion that women will be specifically targeted.
She said 70 per cent of PMA employees and 68.8 per cent of UWOSA employees funded through the operating budget are women. As well, early year service employees (less than four years) are 82 per cent women.
“These numbers suggest women will be more impacted than men,” says Kulczycki. “It’s not by virtue of being targeted.”
Women’s Studies & Feminist Research chair Tracy Isaacs says she does not appreciate what seems to be a ‘just the way it goes’ approach by administration.
“That in and of itself is systematic discrimination. That’s what it is. It’s a pattern that is problematic,” she says. “Why are they (women) in vulnerable positions and why are these positions vulnerable in the first place?”
“I can’t answer why women are in these positions,” says Kulczycki, adding budget cutting solutions will be different within each faculty and support unit. “No doubt these are stressful times.”