The sociologist was appointed to the Officer level, in recognition of “achievement and merit of a high degree,” which has led to policy change in Canada.
Photo courtesy of Cecilia Benoit.
UVic scientist and Professor Emerita of Sociology, Dr. Cecilia Benoit, was named an Officer of the Order of Canada last month for her research on sex work, maternal care, and health equity, which has informed policy change in Canada.
Following her retirement as a faculty member, Benoit is now a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Abuse Research (CISUR) at UVic.
Created in 1967, the Order of Canada is presented by the governor general to Canadians to recognize “outstanding achievement,” dedication to community, and service to the nation.
The Officer (O.C) level is awarded to those who have accomplished an “achievement and merit of a high degree, especially service to Canada or to humanity at large.”
Benoit’s research began with her master’s degree, which examined the differences in work and rights recognition for women in rural and urban regions. During her PhD at the University of Toronto, Benoit witnessed an “active childbirth” movement, seeking to challenge the “medicalization” of birth.
For some women, Benoit explained, having childbirth seen as a medical event that requires a hospital visit can result in “very high c-section … [and] post-partum depression [rates].”
Benoit shared that there was also another movement at that time, working to change the laws that banned midwives from providing pregnancy and childbirth care. At the time, Benoit said in an interview with the Martlet, a medical degree and license were required to midwifery, and midwives were seen in many urban areas of the country as “dirty” and “not educated.”
Having grown up in a small town in Newfoundland, where midwives still worked, Benoit was encouraged by her supervisor to return to Newfoundland and interview working midwives.
The modernization of the Canadian healthcare system in the 1950s introduced family physicians as a person’s primary point of care. While these physicians were available, specialistics like obstetricians — doctors specializing in pregnancy, labour, and birth — were harder to come by, especially in rural areas. In Newfoundland and Labrador, where Benoit conducted her research, there were very few physicians to attend births.
Outside of urban centers, a midwife might be a pregnant woman’s only source of healthcare before the 1950’s. On top of healthcare, Benoit said, midwives also provided emotional and practical support in their communities.
“During the pregnancy, [a woman would] only see a doctor maybe 15 to 20 minutes every month or so, which is very different from midwifery … it’s more of a friendship or partnership,” said Benoit.
“The doctor would just turn up during the labour and delivery, but there was no other primary attendant…. It could be a pretty isolating and traumatic experience for people. Not because of the medical problem of birth, but more the lack of social support.”
In the 1990s, the social movements around childbirth and midwifery and research, including Benoit’s, pushed governments through sociological evidence to recognize that training and employing midwives was cost-effective.
“It feels great, since I never, ever would have thought that we could see a sweeping change in Canada around midwifery and alternative care in 30 years. I wouldn’t have thought of that when I was beginning out,” said Benoit. “It gives me a great feeling that change is possible.… It gives me hope, and that’s why I continued to do that kind of work subsequently in other areas of research.”
Benoit’s other research includes work with sex workers in Victoria in partnership with Peers Victoria. Findings from that research were cited in the 2010 legal challenge to Canada’s former prostitution laws. Benoit’s work with sex workers focused on destigmatizing sex work, and involved interviewing 201 sex workers in Victoria, asking them questions about their working conditions, health, and access to supportive resources.
“I think our work collectively on stigma has been really, really effective and changing some people’s minds, but not everybody, to have a more humanistic and more realistic approach to why people pursue sex work compared to other jobs that are available.”
Dr. Benoit has also researched “street involved youth” with Victoria Foundry, formerly the Victoria Youth Clinic.
“We were again able to show that it’s not as bleak as sometimes people think, and that these people have agency,” Benoit said.
“Many of them actually ended up in adulthood in viable careers and in good situations. So much of it depends on the supports that were available along the way, and that’s still the challenge…. That problem hasn’t disappeared, but we shouldn’t forget that many youth have done well through progressive public policy.”
“I was very humbled,” said Benoit about receiving the Order of Canada appointment. “The research that I’m describing now, that was not popular research in academia … there were very few qualitative or mixed-methods journals that would accept papers at that time … now community-based research is much, much stronger.”
