Celebrating a century of helping out

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This article was published 22/08/2009 (6118 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The University Women’s Club is celebrating a century of doing good work here and around the world.

And to help with the celebration, the club is holding the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of University Women this weekend at the very hotel where the national organization was officially founded.

"We have been celebrating our 100th anniversary all year," said Janet Goldack, past president of the UWC.

"Now women from across Canada, the United States and New Zealand have all come to Winnipeg."

Goldack said the UWC now has a century-long history of helping out.

"We get involved in the city," she said.

"But through the national and international groups, we also get involved in issues around the world. We want to educate girls and women around the world."

The CFUW is holding its conference at the Hotel Fort Garry because that’s where the group had its official founding meeting in 1919. The local club actually began 10 years earlier.

Goldack said one cause the group and the national organization took up in recent years is it helped build houses in the wake of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean for people who lost them.

Louise Croot, president of the International Federation of University Women, said for both the Winnipeg club and the worldwide one "the overarching issues we have are opportunities for women in higher education.

"There is still a lot of discrimination around the world today. The whole issue of gender equality hasn’t gone away… in Africa and other areas it’s still very necessary to help women get educated."

CFUW president Patricia Duval said membership and their chapters are still very active.

"We adapt," she said.

"We don’t change our purpose, but we adapt to the world as it changes. And we still care."

Duval said issues the CFUW deal with today are unemployment reform and equal pay.

The Winnipeg club’s objective is to unite all university women, encourage individual effort toward intellectual development, work for the advancement of education, art, science, literature and civic reform, and promote heritage preservation and improvement of the environment.

The club actually started on April 14, 1909, when three women met together at Dr. Mary Crawford’s home at 233 Kennedy St. Crawford became the group’s first president.

Goldack said the four women "had a certain flair and were movers and shakers" in local society at that time.

All four also had university degrees and that’s why they decided to follow the lead of women in Vancouver who had organized a University Women’s Club the year before. The club in Ottawa was founded a year later and there are now 122 clubs across the country.

During its century in existence, the club and its membership were instrumental in getting the vote for women in Manitoba, the first in the country. One of its more prominent members was Nellie McClung.

One of its earliest presidents, Margaret McWilliams, not only founded and was first CFUW president, but she also began a Continuing Education Program at the Winnipeg club before there were courses like that at universities.

The club has also had as members the first female full professor at the University of Manitoba and the first female deputy premier in the country.

Goldack said club members used to be only women who had a degree from a university, but they have opened up the membership through the years to allow in people who support the objectives of the club and are chosen as honourary members.

The club is also one of only three in the country to have its own clubhouse: the historic Ralph Connor House. The house has been listed as historical by the city and the province and recently was given a National Heritage designation by the federal government.

Annual membership fees are $365. To join call 954-7880.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca