Maïr Verthuy started her teaching career at Concordia University as a Sessional Lecturer in French at Sir George Williams University in 1966, becoming Assistant Professor in 1969. After the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University in 1974, she worked with other feminist scholars on the establishment of a college dedicated to Women’s Studies. She became the first principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at its opening in 1978. Verthuy remained an Associate Professor at the department of Études françaises until being granted the rank of Professor in 1992. She would be getting the title of Distinguished Professor Emerita, in 2004 after announcing her retirement in 2003. She’s the author of many books and articles and presented at many colloquia around the world. Her domains of expertise are women’s rights and French literature.
- Maïr Verthuy chaired Concordia’s Arts Faculty Council Committee on Experimentation and Innovation in Higher Education (or AFC Education Committee) in 1974.
- Verthuy was a Democratic Alliance candidate in the St. Louis riding during the Quebec general election of 1976 (becoming Maïr Williams-Verthuy for the occasion as women running at the time had to use their maiden name tacked to their married names).
- In 1978, Verthuy launched Les Cahiers de la femme/Canadian Women’s Studies of which she was an editor.
- Verthuy gave the opening remarks at the Terre des Femmes ’79, a meeting of women’s groups from the Island of Montreal organized by the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Loyola’s Campus Centre in March 1979.
- On May 4, 1979, Maïr Verthuy was honoured at Salon de la femme for her extraordinary contribution to the status of Women in the province of Quebec especially in the field of education.
- Maïr Verthuy was the chief organizer of the International Conference on Research and Teaching Related to Women, sponsored by the Simone the Beauvoir Institute and held July 26 to August 4, 1982. The conference attracted 342 participants from 82 different countries.
- Maïr Verthuy received the John O’Brien Tenth Anniversary Distinguished Teaching Award in 1985.
- A Maïr Verthuy Scholarship was established in 1986. Its first recipient was Kathy Silver.
- Verthuy was one of the founders of the Centre de recherche et d’enseignement sur la francophonie et les femmes (CREFF) in 1988. Among other things, the centre aimed at promoting local research on women in francophone countries.
- In September 1995, she represented Canada at the United Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing.
- The YMCA selected Verthuy as the recipient for the 1997 Women of Distinction Award for the Advancement of Women.
- The three-day conference Les Femmes de lettres et le français hors frontière held at Concordia in May 15 to 17, 1998 was held in honour of Maïr Verthuy.
- On the recommendation of Quebec’s Minister of Education, Verthuy was made Chevalière, Ordre des Palmes Académiques by decree of the prime minister of France in recognition of her long commitment to teaching and research in French language and culture in 2002.
- Verthuy was granted a Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case on November 7, 2008.
- She was named to the Order of Canada by the Governor General in 2012.
- Verthuy was the subject of the 2014 movie Autour de Maïr, directed by Hejer Charf.
- She was inducted in the Ordre national du Québec, becoming a Chevalière in 2019.