Reframing the Montreal Massacre

Yesterday, communities around the country gathered to remember, mourn and recommit to working together to end violence against women. The 14 women killed at L’ecole Polytecnique were named, honoured and remember.

Here in Hamilton, the Women’s Centre took the lead in organizing a touching event complete with music, speakers and a time capsule to help us remember where we were then and where we are now.

If you have a moment, take a look at the video below examining the media coverage of the Montreal Massacre.

Reframing the Montréal Massacre from Maureen Bradley on Vimeo.

Rose Campaign

This rose commemorates Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. On December 6, 1989, fourteen young women were murdered at l’École Polytechnique, sparking pressure for gun control legislation. Twenty years later, 88% of Canadian women killed with guns are killed with a shotgun or rifle. Registering long guns saves lives. Last year, over 100,000 women and children entered shelters in Canada. Women need to live safely beyond shelter – not choose between poverty and returning to abuse. For women’s safety – Defeat Bill C-391. Invest in new housing. The Rose Campaign to End Violence Against Women & Girls.

Please visit www.rosecampaign.ca to send your MP a rose.

Butter and Guns?

A recent Globe and Mail blog post takes note of the gender divide during Question Period. The article suggests that the two “big” stories of the fall- the H1N1 outbreak and the recent Afghan prisoner torture allegations have been have divided Parliament along gender lines. When asking about H1N1, the author notes that female MPs asked the female Health Minister but when the discussion turned to war, torture and terrorism, the female MPs were far more likely to sit quietly in their seats.

As stated by Taber:

 As a leading expert on women in politics, the University of Toronto’s Sylvia Bashevkin says this is not uncommon – women traditionally deal with the butter issues (social spending, health and the arts) and men with the gun issues.

Sylvia Bashevkin, the author of the excellent book Women, Power, Politics: The Hidden Story of Canada’s Unfinished Democracy , suggests that “… cabinet positions women historically were offered were portfolios that were seen as a logical extensional of a traditional maternal role: health, education, welfare, culture”.

Finance is another portfolio that appears to be biased. The Finance Minister is a male and so are all of his Critics.

Is this ok?

Does this even matter?

Blog author Jane Taber suggests it does matter.

it’s important for young people of both genders to see women operating in all aspects of public policy. It is equally important to see male politicians in non-traditional roles… Breaking gender stereotypes and having male and female MPs in non-traditional roles can pack more punch, argues Bashevkin: It makes public policy seem like it’s about all of us and not just some narrow spectrum either of only women who care about social policy or men who are equipped to know about whether it’s the economy or foreign affairs or defence…I think social policy, when voiced by a man, and defence or economic or foreign policy, when voiced by a woman, because it’s sort of breaking with stereotype, can often be more compelling, more resonant and more remembered.

Be sure to read the whole article HERE.

Cross-posted at Elect More Women

Women’s Happiness

A lot of blogs and mainstream media have been reporting on the recent studies that women’s overall happiness is decreasing. Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner wrote a great piece for the Huffington Post in response to the many male voices that have been making noise on this issue.

Rowe- Finkbeiner’s analysis of the phenomenon seems dead on. Here is a snippet of the article (we recommend reading the whole piece HERE):

Why are women unhappy? The fact that the feminist revolution is mid-course and some are calling it over just because women now number half of the labor force is a reason for unhappiness. The fact that we don’t have family-friendly policies which most other nations take as a given is another reason for unhappiness.

We’re not moving forward, we’re falling behind. According to international gender equality ratings just released by the World Economic Forum, the United States fell four spots from last year. We now stand at 31st place, just behind Lithuania. Further, falling behind hurts us all: Right now there are only 15 women CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, despite that more than 50% of college graduates are now women and despite, importantly, that recent studies show that Fortune 500 companies with women in leadership are actually doing better fiscally in this tough economic environment.

She’s a smart woman with a good point.

Menstration and Education

A lot of research has  been done about the barriers to girl’s education in the majority world- early marriage, pregnancy, poverty and disease.  But the  Daily Nation posted an op-ed on another issue that prevents girls from getting a quality education: menstruation.

Lacking sanitary products, girls find it easier to stay home rather than face the embarrassment and awkwardness of menstruation at school.  The article cites a 2005 UNICEF report that found 1 in 10 girls in Kenya did not attend school during their periods.

These absences add up and in some cases girls will stop going to school all together.

Interestingly enough- the solution, the authors argue, is not to send over disposable sanitary products that Western women are so accustom to, but rather to invest in reusable sanitation products, which tend to not only more sustainable, but also more environmentally friendly.

Of course politicians, parents, shop keepers and NGOs all have role to play argues the authors. MPs in Kenya recently lowered the taxes on sanitary towels. Parents and teachers can speak openly and honestly to girls about how to manage their periods and shop keepers can display sanitation products in plain sight.

This is an important issue to address. To quote the authors, “Girls face significant struggles. Let’s not allow the process of becoming a woman to further hinder their pursuits.”

Take a look at the whole article here.

Are women working harder for nothing?

I read an eye-opening article in the Globe and Mail today. Journalist Leah McLaren argues that despite some “good news” for women this week (“…the salaries of recent female business graduates narrowly exceeded those of their male counterparts for the first time. .. the Shriver Report found that half the American work force is now composed of women.”) it’s not all sunshine and lollypops.

In fact, argues McLaren, it’s a lot worse than that. I recommend that you click here and read the entire article, but here’s a small taste:

Despite working harder and in greater numbers than ever before, women are still earning less than men in the same jobs over all and taking most of the responsibility for housework and child care.

In essence, the plight of women is like that old morale-boosting management trick: the no-compensation promotion (also known as the non-raise raise). It’s all very flattering until you realize that you have just taken on twice as much work and responsibility for no extra pay or respect.

It’s a raw deal. And here’s another bitter pill: Working harder than men is not going to help us renegotiate the terms.

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The future is not a place to which we are going, it is a place we are creating. The paths to the future are not found, but made, and the activity of them changes both the maker and the destination

~Martha Cleary

superfreakonomics and sexwork

Take a look at this article in the Guardian that makes the argument that the authors of the new book “Superfreakonmics” got it all wrong when they wrote their chapter on sex work.

Here’s an exerpt from the article:

Good news, ladies. You, too, can make millions by charging for sex! And you’ll just have a slam-bang, gee-golly splendiferous time doing it, too – at least if you absolutely adore the sort of men who pay for it. Be warned, however: Disliking those men will consign you to the minimum-wage ranks of sex professionals, forever longing for the big bucks you could be earning, had you only an appropriately chipper attitude….

Levitt and Dubner build their piece around a comparison of two prostitutes: Allie, who works from her bedroom and makes between $350 and $500 an hour, depending on the client, and LaSheena, who works on the streets and probably makes about $350 a week, based on statistics (some information – any information – as to LaSheena’s specific circumstances and earnings probably would have helped the comparison, but Levitt and Dubner seem, in this instance as in many others, not to have bothered learning about their subject).

LaSheena and Allie are the Goofus and Gallant of sex work, at least in the warped little scenario laid forth in the Superfreakonomics excerpt. Arising, as Levitt and Dubner seem to assume they do, from absolutely no context whatsoever (the fact that Allie is probably white, and that LaSheena is probably not, is never once addressed, for example; neither is the personal history of LaSheena explored in any detail, though we hear about Allie at excruciating length) they are not actual women so much as they are flattened-out, hollow caricatures of Success and Failure. Allie is a good prostitute; she has succeeded. LaSheena is a bad prostitute; she has failed.

 

Be sure to take a look- it’s a very interesting article.

Women beaten in India after being accused of being “witches”

BBC recently reported a  story about 5 women in a remote village in India that were branded as “witches” and as a result, they were dragged into the street, beaten and forced to eat feces in front of a jeering crowd. The five women are said to be Muslim widows and were labelled “witches” by female neighbours who claim to have a gift from the Holy Spirit to detect those practicing witchcraft.

Hundreds of villagers watched while the women were dragged in the streets, striped and beaten…but no one stepped in to save them.

According to BBC, hundreds of people (mostly women) have been killed after being accused of witchcraft by their neighbours.

What a graphic, inhumane example of misogyny …and how tragic is it that no one stepped in to help these women.

Why we should observe persons day

Why should we observe Person’s Day?

What is its significance for us now- 80 years later?

October 18, 1929, women were deemed persons under the law.  The decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England to overrule the Canadian Supreme Court and declare women “persons” according to the British North America Act (our Constitution at the time), was without doubt a major victory for women and an important step on the path to equality. But it was not the end of the journey by any means. Asians were not allowed to vote until 1948, Inuit until 1950, and status Indians until 1960. Quebec was the last province to give women the provincial vote, in 1940.

 Later known as the Famous Five, the five women activists in Alberta who were responsible for the landmark decision of October 18th, had fought long and hard for women’s rights. They believed that women would bring a different perspective to the political arena and they were right.  They fought for and won legislation and measures in the areas of social assistance for widows and immigrants, protection for children, property rights for women in marriage, vocational training for impoverished working women, prison reform.  Each of them was instrumental in establishing one or more women’s institutions that carried on the work of service and equality, some that continue up to the present day: the National Council of Women; the Federation of Women’s Institutes; the Victoria Order of Nurses: the Working Girls Association (a forerunner of the YWCA of Montreal), United Farm Women of Alberta.

 The work of equality is not done, however, and women’s voices are needed more than ever in the fight for social justice and equity. Women still lag men in earning power, they still carry an unequal burden of care for children and the elderly and disabled, are still 4 times more likely to experience violence than men, are still underrepresented at all levels of government and in positions of power in our society. In a little over a month, on December 6, we will mark another key anniversary in women’s history in Canada- the 20^th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre when 14 young women were gunned down for the simple reason they were women presuming to move in a man’s world. 

 Hamilton wants to be the “best place to raise a child…” But we have failed to acknowledge that behind every poor child is a poor mother- often a single mother. Until we tackle women’s poverty we will not see a measurable improvement in child poverty. In the words of the old union hymn Bread and a Roses “The rising of the women means the rising of the race.”

 80 years later, the work of the “famous five” to have women take their rightful place alongside men in society continues. The challenges of the issue are further complicated by poverty and racism which compound the sexism in society, by perpetuating inequality between and among women from different socio-economic and ethno-racial backgrounds. Being a woman in our society puts you at a disadvantage; being a poor woman, a woman of colour, and especially being an aboriginal woman, puts you at much higher risk.

This year to mark the 80th Anniversary of Person’s Day, the Zonta Clubs of Hamilton and the YWCA have joined forces to mark the historic occasion and also to raise awareness of the work that remains to be done, especially in regards to the situation for Aboriginal women. We are hosting a special Person’s Day Breakfast on Monday October 19 at Liuna Station and have invited Dr. Dawn Martin-Hill of the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University to speak about the situation for aboriginal women.  Achieving equality means more than passing a law. Until all of us are equal, none of us is equal.

Catherine M. Pead, CEO

YWCA Hamilton