Cheryl Regehr, 2022 YWCA Toronto Woman of Distinction for Education, and Professor, Vice-President and Provost at the University of Toronto
I admit that when YWCA Toronto first asked for a blog post from me, I hesitated. While I am both honoured and humbled to be named as this year’s Woman of Distinction in the education category, I feel that this recognition arises from the collective work of myself and my colleagues at the University of Toronto.
I have been immensely fortunate to work with and look up to some tremendous leaders at U of T who have been fully invested in advancing gender equity at our institution and beyond. Over the past several years, women have increased their presence and influence across higher education.
At U of T, women now account for nearly half of all our appointed faculty. While only 29% of our full professors are women, women make up 49% of our assistant professors – thus, in the years ahead I am confident that we will see parity in the more senior ranks.
When it comes to our students, 55% of undergraduates and 54% of graduate students identify as female. Further, as of today, 11 of 17 Faculty deans at the University of Toronto are women. Still, there is work to be done. Black and Indigenous women continue to be under-represented in our universities.
We at U of T are working to expand their presence in our community through dedicated programs that include outreach to potential undergraduate students, pathways into our professional programs such as Medicine and Law, post-doctoral fellowships for emerging Black and Indigenous scholars, and a salary support program that is bringing 160 new diverse faculty to our campuses.
As women, we know that representation matters. We know how empowering and validating it is when we see other women in executive and senior positions. For those of us who are leaders, being among other women can give us a sense of belonging in a leadership community. Likewise, it is critical for young women and girls around the world to see people who look like them in the roles that they dream of stepping into. o truly accomplish this, we must be attentive to ensuring that women from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to succeed.
In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which has at its heart 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). These goals collectively recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations are critical to improving health, reducing inequality, spurring economic growth, and tackling climate change and environmental degradation.
While higher education concerns itself with all of these in some form or another, two that are tremendously important to me are SDGs #4 and #5: Quality Education and Gender Equality, respectively. Furthering gender equity in education – and inclusion and equity more broadly – is core to improving the future health of our societies.
I am extremely proud of what U of T has accomplished and what my forebears, colleagues and I have built in terms of establishing a foundation where girls and women can thrive. I am also passionate about continuing to shore up that foundation as a sustainable response to political, economic, geographic and social instabilities. I am optimistic for a future where more women with diverse life experiences will sit at leadership tables – so that more girls from around the world can imagine a brighter tomorrow for themselves, their families, and their societies.