Throughout the 50 years of the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women, dozens of Council members have emphasized the importance of education and training as essential to gender equality. Access to education and training enhances individual women’s self-worth and economic independence and improves the future for themselves, their families, and all our communities. As a result, a bursary program for women-identifying students pursuing education and training has been a Council project for many years.
The bursary program began in the 1990s with one $250 bursary, but over the years, Council members recognized more was needed, and the Council now awards three $750 awards each year. While education opportunities for many women have expanded and barriers for most learners have decreased, some groups still face challenges and barriers, and the bursaries recognize this. Our general post-secondary bursary focuses on studies in gender equality and in fields that where women and gender-diverse people have been under-represented. One bursary supports women-identified people who have been granted refugee status. And the most recent bursary supports migrant worker rights by aiding someone who is or has been part of the Temporary Foreign Worker program.
All three bursaries are presented in memory of exceptional Island women connected to the Council’s work. The first bursary named for a champion of equality was the Inge Blacket Memorial Refugee Bursary, presented for more than 20 years to a woman granted refugee status and pursuing education or training.
When she died in December 2002, Inge Blackett was serving as Vice-Chairperson of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women. A Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, Inge’s contributions as a Council member and Vice-Chairperson from 1998 to 2002 were significant. Her commitment to gender equality was always present. Inge shared her knowledge and experience on many of the Advisory Council’s issues including seniors, health care, and education. Her compassion for others was reflected in her tireless volunteer efforts in the community, and her love of lifelong learning shone through in her work, including as a founding board member of the Seniors College.
When our then-Chairperson Diane Kays died in March 2015, Council members renamed our post-secondary bursary in her honour and focused the criteria on areas she was passionate about: gender equality and improving access for gender-minorities in fields that historically excluded women.
When Council members established a migrant worker rights bursary in 2022, to support the learning goals of a sector that faces many barriers, women-identifying Temporary Foreign Workers, we knew we wanted the bursary to memorialize another champion of justice and equality. On the occasion of our friend Maureen Larkin’s celebration of life this week, we are proud and sad to announce the renaming of our most recent bursary as the Maureen Larkin Memorial Migrant Worker Rights Bursary. Presente, Maureen.
- Maureen Larkin Memorial Migrant Worker Rights Bursary
- Saturday, March 22, 2025 – Celebration of Life for Maureen Larkin
