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19Reflections on women in statistics inCanadaMary E. ThompsonDepartment of Statistics and Actuarial ScienceUniversity of Waterloo, Waterloo, ONHaving been a recipient of the Elizabeth L. Scott Award, I have chosen thesubject of women in statistics in Canada. The chapter is a selective history,combined with a series of reflections, and is intended as a tribute to womenin statistics in Canada — past, present, and future.Elizabeth L. Scott touches the story herself in a couple of ways, thoughfleetingly. I am fortunate to have met her in Delhi in December 1977, at the41st Session of the International Statistical Institute. I had studied some ofher work in modeling and inference — and had recently become aware of herpioneering approaches to the study of gender disparities in faculty salaries.I have written about some individuals by name, mainly senior people.Because there are many women in the field in Canada, I have mentionedfew whose last degree is more recent than 1995. Even so, I am conscious ofomissions, and hope that this essay may inspire others to tell the story morecompletely.19.1 A glimpse of the hidden pastThe early history of statistics in Canada is not unrecorded, but apart froma few highlights, has never been processed into a narrative. Quite possiblywomen were involved in statistics from the beginning. Before the StatisticalSociety of Canada brought statisticians together and began to record theircontributions, there were no chronicles of the profession. There may be otherstories like the following, told by historian of statistics David Bellhouse:“Last summer on a family holiday in Winnipeg, we had dinner withmy father-in-law at his seniors’ apartment building in the downtownarea. Seated at our table in the dining room were four sisters. Since203