Difficult to recruit female staff

1891, Thomas Burgess, MD: “There has been great difficulty since our opening in procuring efficient female help, both for the wards and the executive department. This is in great measure due to our distance from the city, and there being no regular means of conveyance to and from it.”

In 1899, the Montreal streetcar system was extended almost to the Hospital grounds, which greatly helped to solve the transportation problem.

Before Pay Equity…

In the mid-60s, it was still common for male staff to earn significantly more than their female colleagues for identical work (same difficulty, level of responsibility etc.):

Separate dining rooms

In the 1950s, psychiatrists, general practitioners and many administrators ate in Perry Pavilion in a private dining room. They were waited upon by cafeteria staff, and their tables were set with white tablecloths.

Nurses, nursing attendants, and most of the rest of the staff ate in the main cafeteria. They stood in line for their meals and ate at plain tables, as all staff do today.

The maintenance staff also ate in a separate room. There meals were brought in by trolley.

This unequal treatment came to an abrupt end with the appointment of Charles A. Roberts, MD, as medical superintendent in 1957.

Retired employee Don Scally recalls, “One day in the late fifties, Dr. Roberts came up to me while I was eating lunch with the maintenance staff. I had just been hired as an electrician. He placed his hand on my shoulder and asked me if I’d sit with the doctors. When I went to the doctor’s area, it was a bit awkward at first, but everyone soon got used to eating together. From that point on, Dr. Roberts insisted that all staff eat together and be treated the same way.”