Dr. Jill McCalla Vickers, Ph.D (born 1942) is a notable Canadian feminist political scientist and professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Vickers is particularly notable for her groundbreaking work in the field of gender in politics.
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Vickers was born in Britain during World War II, to an English mother and a father who was a Canadian serviceman posted in England. After the war she and her war-bride mother followed her father to Canada, where they resided in Hamilton until her parents' divorce. Thereafter, she and he mother moved to Toronto, where she graduated from Harbord Collegiate.
She briefly attended Queen's University, transferring to Carleton, where she graduated with a B.A. in Political Science in 1965. She moved to London, England where she studied at the London School of Economics, eventually earning a Ph.D. in political philosophy. She has been a professor at Carleton since 1971.
She is currently married to retired Carleton history professor, Keith Johnson. She has two children: Michael Vickers, her son from her previous marriage, and her second son, Matthew Johnson.
A self-described socialist and long-time activist and supporter of the New Democratic Party, Vickers ran for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons, during the 1979 federal election as the candidate for the NDP for the riding of Ottawa—Carleton.
Although she finished third, behind Progressive Conservative incumbent Jean Pigott and victorious Liberals candidate Jean-Luc Pépin, the experience was an important development in her understanding of the challenges faced by women involved in partisan politics in Canada.
She (with Dr. Gerald Caplan) debated Objectivist philosophers Dr. John Ridpath and Dr. Leonard Peikoff, defending socialism against their advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism.
The Canadian Political Science Association has announced that The Jill Vickers Prize, will be awarded to the author of the best paper presented, in English or French, at the annual conference of the Canadian Political Science Association on the topic of gender and politics.
In 2003 Vickers was selected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Vickers is also a Chancellor's Professor of Political Science at Carleton.