During the 1968 Royal Commission on the Status of Women, CUPE made
the following report:
"CUPE does not feel that the labour movement does enough to fight
discrimination against working women. We will readily admit that
there is discrimination against women in all sections of the
labour movement. To hide the fact will only prevent the solving of
the problem.
We do not wish to minimize the good work done by many unions which
try to eliminate wage discrimination and job opportunity on the basis
of sex. Nevertheless, the majority of female union members who fight
for true equality, do so without the wholehearted support of their
fellow trade unions, male and female.
Although our female membership is considerably higher than the general
pattern of unions in Canada, the union of CUPE have only fared slightly
better than women in other unions in attaining positions of leadership.
a) Two executive board members out of a total of 17 are women.
b) With a total of 75 executive officers in all of CUPE Provincial
Divisions across Canada, eight are women.
c) With a technical organizing and education staff of 90, CUPE has just
recently hired its first female representative
