Marie France Raynault, new president of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

2023-10-14 08:00:20

This text is part of the special Feminine Leadership notebook

Professor emeritus in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Montreal, Marie-France Raynault was recently named president of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (ACSS). This appointment represents one of the highest academic distinctions in Canada. Mme Raynault thus becomes the first French-speaking president of this body whose objective is to contribute to the development of public health policies.

Marie-France Raynault sees this appointment as an opportunity to influence the health field in favor of Canadians. As a community health and public health physician, she says she has observed for decades the impact of public policies on individual health. Being at the head of the Academy thus gives him privileged access to decision-makers in the federal government. The one who has been a member of the ACSS since 2007 also sees it as an “opportunity to pass on the knowledge” acquired during her career. In his eyes, his appointment demonstrates the Academy’s desire to be more equitable and inclusive by opening up to the Canadian Francophonie.

A career guided by social justice

Marie-France Raynault was exposed very early to disadvantaged environments, which awakened in her a feeling of injustice when faced with fellow citizens living in “unacceptable living conditions in a country like ours”. This feeling undoubtedly constitutes the starting point of his career as well as an opportunity to study how inequalities can be reduced in order to provide better living conditions.

Throughout his professional career, M^me Raynault was guided by social inequalities and the health of the most deprived. “I went where I thought I would be more useful,” confides the researcher for whom fighting poverty is a “constant challenge.”

The adoption, in 2002, of the Law aimed at combating poverty and social exclusion represents, in fact, the culmination of one of her major contributions, which she also describes as being a high point in her career . M^me Raynault thus co-led “a research team in support of this law”, which opened the way to other subsequent plans to fight against poverty allowing great “progress [vis-à-vis] of family poverty,” she explains.

From social to gender inequalities

Female leadership, “is still something that requires particular skill,” admits the professor emeritus, who nevertheless specifies that she had “a lot of ease at the Academy”. She also believes that being a woman in a position of authority forces one to demonstrate “great rigor because mistakes are never forgiven”. When she began her career, she remembers that it was unexpected that a woman would be in a leadership role. This meant that it was often contested and “subject to very intense scrutiny.” »

She also hopes that these imperatives will be “leveled” for new generations and that the differences observed at the start of her career will no longer have their place. M^me Raynault adds that, “often, female leadership already represents a fight against gender inequalities” and that women in positions of authority are often sensitive to the inequalities experienced during their careers.

It encourages analyzing the intersection of [inégalités sociales] not only with regard to gender, but also living conditions, poverty, immigration status or even racism and the “stigma of certain groups”.

The new president of the ACSS is convinced of the importance of having women in leadership positions, particularly in the field of health. “We need women everywhere in society, at different levels,” in the same way that we need men, declares the specialist. According to her, research shows that gender-balanced boards of directors are more effective “than purely male boards of directors”.

The question of representation thus occupies an important place. Women make up half of society, “they must be represented [au moins] on a democratic basis,” she explains. A coherent representation of women is necessary, declares the researcher for whom “the burden of families is not yet completely shared”. It is therefore with better representation that these challenges can be raised “at the highest authorities”.

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