International Women's Day Tribute to Former Chancellor Doris Anderson
Today, March 8, is International Women's Day and no day could be more fitting to pay tribute to Doris Anderson, the powerful, inspirational, and warm-hearted woman who served as the Chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island from 1992 to 1996. Members of the UPEI community were deeply saddened to learn that Ms Anderson had passed away on March 2 in Toronto at the age of 85.
"I have worked with many women, on local and on national committees, but I have never met anyone with Doris's special wisdom and compassion," says Dr. Elizabeth Epperly, former President of UPEI. "Doris was fearless and resourceful; never did she walk away from a situation where her presence could have helped to further the causes of equality and justice."
Although Doris Anderson's term as Chancellor ended in 1996, she remained closely connected to the Island and the University over the subsequent decade. Says President Wade MacLauchlan, "Former Chancellor Anderson cherished her connections to PEI and UPEI. She was proud to have those ties represented at her 80th birthday party, which filled two ballrooms at the Royal York Hotel. She relished her summers at St. Peter's. And she kept fully up-to-date on UPEI and our achievements and well-being."
Anderson House, PEI's shelter for women and children who are fleeing abusive relationships, is named for Doris Anderson. "Her spirit lives on in every woman and child who finds hope there," says Lisa Murphy, a UPEI alumna who now heads the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
Doris Anderson was born on November 10, 1921, in Calgary. In 1951 she took a position at Chatelaine magazine as an editorial assistant in the advertising promotion department and six years later she had risen through the ranks to become editor. She went on to make Chatelaine the best-read magazine in the country. She wanted to give readers "something serious to think about" and to "shake them up a bit" with well-written, hard-hitting investigative pieces on reproductive choice, discriminatory divorce laws, and the wage gap. And she hired excellent (and now famous) journalists to write them, including June Callwood, Christina McCall (later Newman) Michele Landsberg, Barbara Frum and Sylvia Fraser.
In 1979, she accepted a federal appointment as chair of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, a position she later resigned from as she led the fight to reword the government's Charter of Rights legislation to state that women and men are equal under the law. She went on to head the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. She was active in Equal Voice, a multi-partisan group dedicated to increasing women's participation in political life. In recent years, she expressed her commitment to equality and inclusion by championing the movement for electoral reform and proportional representation. Doris Anderson was also a widely-respected writer of four books including, The Unfinished Revolution: Status of Women in 12 Countries, published in 1991.
"Doris Anderson was one of the most generous of colleagues to women and to men; she gave a special level of support to women who were working for change," says Elizabeth Epperly. "She will continue to be one of Canada's finest examples of a powerful, politically astute woman who knew how to share her insights and her breadth of understanding. I will miss her keen mind, her strength, and her warmth."
A memorial service for Doris Anderson will take place in Toronto on May 12. The University of Prince Edward Island and former Chancellor Anderson's PEI family will be represented at the service.
