November 6, 1979 - Action Travail des Femmes - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Women’s group files discrimination complaint against CNR. On November 6, 1979, the Quebec group Action Travail des Femmes filed the first of 155 complaints against the Canadian National Railway (CNR), alleging systemic discrimination against women in its hiring and promotional practices. The case took years to wind its way through the human rights and court system, but eventually, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed with an earlier Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision, and ordered CNR to hire one woman for every four non-traditional jobs filled, until the firm attained the Canadian national average in its ratio of male to female employees. Chief Justice Brian Dixon noted that CNR had indeed “prevented and discouraged women from working on blue collar jobs.”

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