University of Ottawa Trailblazers

1919

The University of Ottawa Senate approves the Bachelor of Arts program for the women’s colleges (Bruyère and Notre-Dame). Women students begin to attend classes.

1922

Sister Paul-Émile (Marie-Louise Guay), sister Marie-du-Rédempteur (Angélique Beaulieu) sister St. Lorenzo (Gabrielle Lemaire) and sister Joseph-Arthur (Martine Moreau) are the first women to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Ottawa.

1923

Women students attend the new Ottawa Normal School (later known as the Ottawa Teacher’s College and now as the Faculty of Education).

1927

The Ottawa Normal School has a majority of female students.

1929

Bernadette Tarte and Rita Roy become the first lay women to obtain a Bachelor of Arts at the University. Soon thereafter, Mrs. Tarte became one of the first lay persons to work as a librarian at the Normal school. She worked at the library for 30 years. The University named the Bernadette Centre (daycare) in her honour.

1933
Sister Joseph-Arthur (Claire Laramée) and Thérèse Archambault are the first two women to receive a PhD from the University.

A School of Nursing is created exclusively for women students and the teaching staff is exclusively female (Sisters of Charity). Sister Madeleine de Jésus (Corinne Laflamme) is the first woman director of a school at the University.

Hélène Landry-Labelle became director of pianist teaching at the School of Music, the first lay woman to teach at the University of Ottawa. She was a Paris-trained accomplished and renowned musician

1950

Claire Boult (Bélanger) is the first woman to receive a diploma in a non-traditional sector for women at the time – BA in Commerce.

1956

Foundation of the School of Domestic Sciences for female students with an all female teaching staff (Congrégation Notre-Dame).

1957

First women to appear on the mosaics of the Faculty of Arts building.

1959

Évelyne LeBlanc becomes the first Dean of Women, responsible for the recruitment of female students. She was involved in the development of the LeBlanc residence which was completed in 1965, providing the first accommodations for women at the University.

Sister Madeleine de Jésus (Corinne Laflamme), director of the School of Nursing, becomes the first woman to sit at the Senate of the University.

1960

Magaret Beznack becomes chair of the department of physiology. She is the first female to occupy the position of department chair at the University of Ottawa, and of any Faculty of Medicine in Canada.

1966

Pauline Vanier becomes the first woman and the first lay person to occupy the position of chancellor at the University of Ottawa.

1968

Margaret Beznack is the first woman elected to the board of governors. She will go on to be the first female vice-dean and the first female dean at the University (Faculty of Medicine). She is the first woman to hold such a position in any Canadian university.

1979

Gabrielle Léger becomes the second female chancellor at the University.

1984

Susan Mann becomes the first female vice-president, academic, of the University. She was also the first woman chair of the department of history at the University and one of the first in Canada to teach a course on women’s history.

1992

Carole Workman becomes the first female vice-rector, resources.

1994

Huguette Labelle becomes the third chancellor at the University. She still occupies that position as of today.

2009

Chantal Beauvais becomes the first female rector at St.Paul University, affiliated with the University of Ottawa.


http://www.uottawa.ca/extraordinarywomen/trailblazers.html
A Chronology of Women's History at the University of Ottawa, by Michel Prévost, Chief Archivist, University of Ottawa, 2011.