Ramkhalawansingh, Ceta

Ceta Ramkhalawansingh is a community activist, retired City of Toronto civil servant, and was a founding member of the student-initiated teaching collective at U of T that introduced the teaching of women’s studies at the U of T in 1971.

Ramkhalawansingh was born in San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago on 19 November 1951 and immigrated with her family to Canada in 1967. She began her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto in 1968 in political science and economics, graduating with a BA in 1972. She received an MA from OISE in 1980. Her MA thesis, supervised by Margrit Eichler, Clive Beck, and Mary O’Brien, is titled "Equal Pay: Criteria for Determining Wage Levels". During this time, Ramkhalawansingh also continued to teach part-time in the Women’s Studies program. She continued with doctoral studies and completed her course work in 1981, but did not complete her dissertation as she had accepted a job at the City of Toronto.

In 1981, Ramkhalawansingh began working for the City of Toronto as the Interim Coordinator of the City of Toronto’s 1984 Sesquicentennial celebrations. From 1983-1988, she was also an appointed member of the Ontario Advisory Council on Women’s Issues (OACWI), who advised the provincial government on women’s issues. Additional roles at the City include: Manager, Equal Opportunity Unit, where she was responsible for human rights and employment equity as well as the service equity program through which the City established obligations regarding antidiscrimination requirements for civic agencies, grant recipients and suppliers of goods and services (Contract Compliance Program); Manager, Access and Equity Unit; and Corporate Manager, Diversity Management and Community Engagement in the new City of Toronto formed after amalgamation in 1998.

In addition to her work at the City of Toronto, she has served on several boards in the voluntary and not-for-profit sector and has been active in her local community of the Grange, advocating for affordable housing, saving heritage buildings from demolition, and campaigning for responsible and appropriate development (particularly in regards to the Art Gallery of Ontario).

Ramkhalawansingh is the 2012 recipient of the City of Toronto’s Constance E. Hamilton Award for Women’s Equality and is an honorary member of the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. From July 7 to November 30, 2014, she served as a Councillor on Toronto City Council for Ward 20 (Trinity-Spadina). She was appointed by Council following the resignation of the incumbent, who was elected to the federal parliament.

Ramkhalawansingh continues to live in Toronto and remains an active member of her local community.

The ways in which the creators of archival records identify themselves and are identified by others is a key contextual aspect of understanding their perspectives and approach. Ceta Ramkhalawansingh identifies as a South Asian heterosexual female from the Caribbean. This information has been gathered from Ceta Ramkhalawansingh.

• Biographical note in file B2022-0030/032(12)
• Share Newspaper, “Ramkhalawansingh wins Constance Hamilton Award”, 12 Dec. 2012.
• University of Toronto Archives. Oral History Collection on Student Activism. Oral history interview with Ceta Ramkhalawansingh conducted by Ruth Belay and Daniela Ansovini, 16 December 2019. A2020-0010/002S.