Dr. John Seely received the first-ever May Cohen Gender Equity Award from the Council of Ontario Faculties of Medicine (COFM) in mid-September. The former dean of medicine at the University of Ottawa set a number of precedents in faculty-related gender equity beginning in 1993, when he appointed Dr. Yvonne Lefebv re as Canada's first assistant dean, gender issues. "He made gender equity important in the faculty," says Lefebvre, now vice-dean, research, and vice-president, academic and research, at the Ottawa Hospital.
Seely also helped establish the university's Office of Gender and Equity Issues in 1997 under the direction of Dr. Rose Goldstein. "My role was very small," Seely said when he accepted the unique knit-picture award. "It is an important step to recognize gender issues in this way." FIGURE
Over the years, the office's initiatives have resulted in what is arguably the most progressive program at a Canadian medical school. The office's initiatives include a sexual harassment policy, mentoring, flexible part-time work arrangements, proportional representation on all faculty committees, an informal conflict-resolution system and parental leave. In addition, each of the 14 departments has established its own gender equity committee. An advisory committee with 30 members, including the departmental representatives, helps guide the office's policies. In making the presentation, Dr. Barbara Lent, chair of COFM's Gender Issues Committee, also announced that the award would be named in honour of Dr. May Cohen, a longtime gender equity advocate and past chair of the CMA's Gender Equity Committee. Cohen helped establish the COFM committee and "has been involved in almost every project in Ontario and across Canada in the last 10 or 15 years," said Lent. - Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ