Women in the University: The Fourth Phase

Abstract

want to thank the Friends of the Library for having invited me to give the lecture named for one of McGill's most famous professors, a man of courage as well as intellect, a man whom we now all admire--though in his own day he had many opponents, even at McGill. We take this occasion to celebrate his multiple contributions to Canadian life: his poetry, his teaching, and his championing of civil liberties, especially his fight against Maurice Duplessis' infamous Padlock Law of 1937 and his advocacy of freedom of expression in the case of the ban on Lady Chatterley's Lover. We also remember him for his humanity and his wit. I know there are people here who still recall the note he left on the door of his McGill office when he went to court in that case. It read, "Gone to bat for Lady Chatt." I would like to have had Frank Scott on my side today as I "go to bat" for one of my favorite topics, "Women in the University. "