A National Chair for Women in Engineering (1989–1997)

This chapter sets the stage for the first Chair for Women in Engineering in Canada, which grew out of activism by Claudette MacKay-Lassonde and others working with Northern Telecom and the University of New Brunswick to propose a new Chair based on the same model as the Industrial Chairs to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The Chair was held by Monique Frize, a biomedical engineer, at the University of New Brunswick and was marked by the tragic Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in its early days. The two-term Chair activities designed and implemented by Monique are summarized, showing a wide range of involvement from outreach to national reports and international travel to connect with women’s organizations in Asia. In 1996, the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering, which included Monique, recommended expanding the program to five regional Chairs for Science and Engineering.