The Rare Books and Special Collections Library at the University of British Columbia holds the Vancouver Status of Women fonds (call code RBSC-ARC-1582). The collection contains 20m of textual records from 1920-1985. The collection was created by the Vancouver Status of Women.
The finding aid states that:
The fonds consists of Vancouver Status of Women office files, research papers and some correspondence. The material deals with topics such as abortion, rape, education, human rights, public relations, sexism, sexual harassment, publishers, daycare, family health, marriage, and many others in general, all issues affecting women in their daily lives. The fonds also includes periodical material.
Prepared by Donna E. Clark, Louise May, Peter Janzen and Christine Jones, the RBSC contains a PDF of the inventory within the fonds. The “Guide to the Inventory” states that the University acquired the collection when VSW’s provincial funding was cut in 1984-85 (2). The bulk of the papers consists of office and research papers, arranged alphabetically by sub-series, file, and sub-group as the main organization (3). It is also noteworthy that “Internal evidence would suggest that at the time the papers were being produced the pace was quite hectic and this supposition is reflected in the nature of the files. In addition, an earlier attempt was made at arrangement of the papers as well as possible rearrangement by individual researchers” (3). It can then be assumed that the original order of the fonds is potentially imbued with deep significance.
Box 20 of the collection (the inspiration for this project) consists of the newspaper clippings and documents from files 20-1 “Sexism in Education” through to 20-69 “Jack Volrich, Mayor of Vancouver A-1”. The selection of this one box of the forty-three file collection covers some official government related documents, such as the information in 20-16 “Social Credit 1976”. In folders 20-1 to 20-7, newspaper clippings from various years, publications, and provinces have been filed as various aspects of “Sexism in…”, ranging from Education, Legal Profession, Ads, etc. While the context of these articles is not always present, the arrangement of the files in such a fashion creates a new way of accessing the mainstream media contributions by re-framing them in the context of how women view sexist portrayals of women in society when they identify them as such.
The purpose of this blog is to bring to light some of the articles unearthed in this archive as a means of accessing the mission of VSW, but also as a way of inviting further contemplation of the role of media in mainstream culture, especially considering how women are perceived and to what degree sexism still plays a role. The collection that VSW constitutes in the RBSC archive offers a collective snapshot of the Status of Women in media and beyond, in a framework that invited the viewer to contemplate the content in a different way.
The collection of the VSW fonds was assembled in line with the mission and purpose of that foundation; the subsequent donation of the collection to the archive, an institution that is not meant to impose narrative, reaffirms the importance of the content. These two opposing forces are only exposed when someone submits a request to the library to pull the box off of the shelf and interacts with the materials themselves, bringing another layer of intention to the archive.
While some things like 20-64 “Women in Unions 1978” may not seem relevant to today, the mission of the VSW is something that should and is still performed, even though VSW themselves have had to narrow their focus to programs that support women in most need, rather than other projects such as the disbanded Kinesis publication. In the world of 2016, the advancement of media and technology have become intertwined in many aspects of life. We carry ads and articles around in our pockets on our personal screens, as well as on buses, buildings, televisions, and print publications. It is difficult to create a context in which to step back and view the Status of Women 2016 from afar as a static box to be analyzed – and perhaps it should not be. However, the VSW archive shows that some things that you may not think twice about, should be given a second thought.