How effective has affirmative action been?
Job candidates’ sex has been a tie-breaker in new appointments in units with less than 30% women since 1987, with the threshold percentage rising to 40% by 1999. In 2006, 45.3% of YUFA members were women, with 36 of 56 units meeting the 40% threshold, 11 units between 20% and 39.9%, and 9 units (mostly in the Sciences) falling below 20%. The percentages of women among graduate students and undergraduates at York were most recently reported to be 54.8 and 62.1, respectively. (York University FactBook (2005/2006)). In the 2007 CAUT Almanac, YUFA ranked sixth among full-time faculty groups at 70 Canadian universities in its representation of women. Affirmative action for self-identified Aboriginal persons, members of visible / racialised minority groups, and persons with disabilities was not implemented until the 1999-2003 Collective Agreement. In 2000, the Centre for Human Rights and Equity reported that 0.4% of YUFA members self-identified as Aboriginal, 10.3% as members of visible / ra
