Votes for Women 100 is a project of PerSIStence Theatre Company, a non-profit organization in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada that responds to the persistent and universal need for promoting, understanding and embracing the core beliefs of feminism. "Through professional theatre and related initiatives, we work to change hearts and minds."
The Board of Directors of PerSIStence provides overall project oversight, final approvals, staff supervision, budget management, implementation, evaluation, and is primarily responsible for all public and private sector fundraising.
The project Steering Committee oversees the development, promotion and implementation of all activities that commemorate and reflect upon 100 years of women gaining the right to vote in the municipality of St. John’s, becoming the first women in Newfoundland and Labrador to achieve the right to do so. They also are tasked with promoting the continuing relevance of intersectional feminism through all activities.
The Board of Directors of PerSIStence provides overall project oversight, final approvals, staff supervision, budget management, implementation, evaluation, and is primarily responsible for all public and private sector fundraising.
The project Steering Committee oversees the development, promotion and implementation of all activities that commemorate and reflect upon 100 years of women gaining the right to vote in the municipality of St. John’s, becoming the first women in Newfoundland and Labrador to achieve the right to do so. They also are tasked with promoting the continuing relevance of intersectional feminism through all activities.
Votes for Women 100 Steering Committee Chair
Dr. Margot Iris Duley was born in St. John's and attended Bishop Spencer and Bishops Colleges. She received a B.A. (Honors History) from Memorial University, and an M.A. in British Imperial and South Asian History from Duke University, North Carolina. Awarded a Rothermere Fellowship, she earned a Ph.D. in South Asian History from the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London. She is Professor Emerita of History at Eastern Michigan University and Dean Emerita, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University of Illinois, Springfield.
Margot is the third generation of feminists and authors in her family. Her grandmother, Tryphena Soper (Chancey) Duley, was part of the suffrage circle at the Ladies Reading Room, an IODE lobbyist for slum and sanitation improvements in St John's, and a short-story writer. Her aunt, Margaret Iris Duley, was Newfoundland's first internationally recognized novelist, a short-story writer, a suffragist, and a founding member of the League of Women Voters and later of St. John's ZONTA.
Margot's own career took her to the United States, though she retained strong connections to Newfoundland and Labrador. She was both challenged and fortunate to live and work in the USA during a period of enormous societal change. The civil rights, women's, LGBTQ and anti-Vietnam war movements were at their height. The times demanded involvement. Her work reflects an historical evolution in feminist thought, one illustrated in her own family. Her grandmother was a maternal feminist; her aunt was an equal rights proponent; and Margot has advocated a globalized and intersectional vision as a teacher, scholar and activist.
Her scholarship includes the Cross-Cultural Study of Women and Where Once Our Mothers Stood We Stand: Women's Suffrage in Newfoundland 1890-1925. The latter book "found her" when she chanced upon unknown information about the Newfoundland suffragist movement at the then Fawcett Library in London. This book was published with the assistance of the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
Margot's work in academia as a professor, department head and dean focused on transforming the curriculum to reflect an interdependent world and the rich variety of human experience. The pioneering curricular integration strategies she instituted at Denison University in conjunction with African American Studies were recognized as a national model by the Ford Foundation. As Dean at the University of Illinois, Springfield she continued this work in curricular transformation.
A publically engaged scholar, Margot served as President of the National Organization for Women, Michigan Conference, one of the largest state feminist organizations in the USA during the height of the Equal Rights Amendment campaign. She was also a NOW political field organizer working in Congressional Districts and a newspaper columnist. Her board service has included the Michigan Project on Equal Educational Rights and more recently Equal Justice, a faith-based initiative to advance and protect LGBTQI rights. Margot is included in a film "Passing the Torch," sponsored by Veteran Feminists of America.
Margot is a strong believer in the arts as a way of opening hearts and challenging minds, leading to a deeper recognition of our common humanity. No exceptions. She is delighted to have retired back to the Rock she loves and to serve on the Board of PerSIStence Theatre.
Dr. Margot Iris Duley was born in St. John's and attended Bishop Spencer and Bishops Colleges. She received a B.A. (Honors History) from Memorial University, and an M.A. in British Imperial and South Asian History from Duke University, North Carolina. Awarded a Rothermere Fellowship, she earned a Ph.D. in South Asian History from the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London. She is Professor Emerita of History at Eastern Michigan University and Dean Emerita, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University of Illinois, Springfield.
Margot is the third generation of feminists and authors in her family. Her grandmother, Tryphena Soper (Chancey) Duley, was part of the suffrage circle at the Ladies Reading Room, an IODE lobbyist for slum and sanitation improvements in St John's, and a short-story writer. Her aunt, Margaret Iris Duley, was Newfoundland's first internationally recognized novelist, a short-story writer, a suffragist, and a founding member of the League of Women Voters and later of St. John's ZONTA.
Margot's own career took her to the United States, though she retained strong connections to Newfoundland and Labrador. She was both challenged and fortunate to live and work in the USA during a period of enormous societal change. The civil rights, women's, LGBTQ and anti-Vietnam war movements were at their height. The times demanded involvement. Her work reflects an historical evolution in feminist thought, one illustrated in her own family. Her grandmother was a maternal feminist; her aunt was an equal rights proponent; and Margot has advocated a globalized and intersectional vision as a teacher, scholar and activist.
Her scholarship includes the Cross-Cultural Study of Women and Where Once Our Mothers Stood We Stand: Women's Suffrage in Newfoundland 1890-1925. The latter book "found her" when she chanced upon unknown information about the Newfoundland suffragist movement at the then Fawcett Library in London. This book was published with the assistance of the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
Margot's work in academia as a professor, department head and dean focused on transforming the curriculum to reflect an interdependent world and the rich variety of human experience. The pioneering curricular integration strategies she instituted at Denison University in conjunction with African American Studies were recognized as a national model by the Ford Foundation. As Dean at the University of Illinois, Springfield she continued this work in curricular transformation.
A publically engaged scholar, Margot served as President of the National Organization for Women, Michigan Conference, one of the largest state feminist organizations in the USA during the height of the Equal Rights Amendment campaign. She was also a NOW political field organizer working in Congressional Districts and a newspaper columnist. Her board service has included the Michigan Project on Equal Educational Rights and more recently Equal Justice, a faith-based initiative to advance and protect LGBTQI rights. Margot is included in a film "Passing the Torch," sponsored by Veteran Feminists of America.
Margot is a strong believer in the arts as a way of opening hearts and challenging minds, leading to a deeper recognition of our common humanity. No exceptions. She is delighted to have retired back to the Rock she loves and to serve on the Board of PerSIStence Theatre.
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Steering Committee Members
Jenn Deon Dr. Margot Duley - Chair Counselor Debbie Hanlon Sharon King-Campbell Ruth Lawrence Wendi Smallwood |
Ladies Reading Room Subcommittee
Dr. Sonja Boon Dr. Heidi Coombs Jenn Deon Dr. Margot Duley Leahdawn Hiscock Sharon King-Campbell Ruth Lawrence Trudy Morgan Cole Elizabeth Whitten |
Women's March Subcommittee
Jenn Deon Debbie Hanlon Tiffany Martin Wendi Smallwood |
