The Emergence of Women in the Scrum

It's not about progress in women's rugby!

The second part of the title of this presentation, which is being given as an attraction at the AGM of the Friends of the City of Ottawa Archives, Sunday October 19, 2 pm to 4 pm, is The Ottawa Chapter of the Women’s Press Club During WWII.

The speaker is Marci Surkes, Director of Communications to a Member of Parliament.

There is no charge to attend this event at 111 Sussex Drive, Cafeteria, Terrace Level, Bytown Pavilion. Free parking in the main garage, entrance at the traffic lights in front of the building.

Here's the abstract and bio:

The war years witnessed an unprecedented entry into news reporting for young women across Canada, and the Ottawa Chapter of the Canadian Women's Press Club was one of the country's most active branches. In the 1930s and 1940s, Women began taking their place on the airwaves and on the pages of both city and national daily newspapers. Yet as the first female war correspondent for the Canadian Press was dispatching from France, women reporters at home faced critics who felt that women should be restricted to stringing social notes. But the resilient Ottawa Chapter members proved that pioneering women journalists could not be deterred, and would break into the newsrooms and scrums of the Nation's Capital.

Marci Surkes serves as Director of Communications and Policy to a Member of Parliament. She began researching the history of the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Women's Press Club while working as a reporter at the Ottawa Citizen in 2004, and is currently preparing the biographies of two late members of the Ottawa Chapter of the CWPC. Ms. Surkes is a Director of the Friends of the City of Ottawa Archives.