Today is International Womens’ Day. It’s a day to stand together, to call for rights when they’re lacking, and to defend rights when they’re in danger. And there is some danger at the door, with a declaration yesterday that the “perfect storm” makes the perfect moment for the U.S. crusade
Continue readingTag: women’s issues
Dented Blue Mercedes: Learn about gay and trans kids? No. Have them protest abortion? Okay.
A group of parents in B.C. are adamantly opposed to the Burnaby school district enacting an LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying policy. Catholic school districts in Ontario want to ban rainbows and Gay-Straight Alliances. Charles Adler is worried that a calendar that is a teachers’ reference (and notes the Transgender Day of Remembrance) might cause kids to become
Continue readingantigonemagazine.wordpress.com: Women Who Rock – Jacquie Linder
Antigone writer Nicole Perry recently interviewed Jacqui Linder, the Founder and Executive Director of The Chrysalis Anti-Human Trafficking Network. The Chrysalis Anti-Human Trafficking Network offers a national 24-7 trauma counselling line for survivors of human trafficking and exploitation. She is an Associate Professor and senior administrator at City University in
Continue readingantigonemagazine.wordpress.com: “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”
What are your dreams for yourself, your friends, your sisters, your daughters? Paint, draw, write, sketch, or decoupage your dreams on a postcard and send it to us. Antigone Magazine C/O WILLA Box 61 – 6138 SUB Blvd Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1 Filed under: Dreams for women, women’s issues
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Guest Post: Beth Elliott’s Rebuttal of the Brennan-Hungerford Submission
Beth Elliott is a San Francisco Bay Area writer, musician and lesbian activist. The first transsexual woman to transition to be an out lesbian, she served a year’s term as Vice President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (1971-72), but was purged from the organization three months later. She was one
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Less Than Woman, Less Than Human
Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford have tendered a paper to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, in response to a query regarding the current international status of women. From this exercise, the Commission will be working to “identify emerging trends and patterns of injustice and discriminatory practices against women
Continue readingantigonemagazine.wordpress.com: Women’s Worlds 2011
Women’s Worlds 2011 has blasted through barriers and has broken new ground over the last four days that it has taken place in Ottawa. I have had the privilege to be a part of it as a participant, a presenter and as the BC Network Leader for the non-profit participation part of the conference.
Continue readingFetus Billboard Boy Would Rather Go To Jail Than Take Down His Billboard
Remember that gawd awful image below? Is it just me? Or does he really look diabolical? He looks like he’s about to devour that invisible baby.
Yes, #gregfultzisacreep, that billboard boy has been ordered to take down his billboard immediately.
But Fultz’s attorney said his client is adamant about protecting his . . . → Read More: Fetus Billboard Boy Would Rather Go To Jail Than Take Down His Billboard
Continue readingOne Woman. One Blog.: Giving Birth to Your Activist Self: Finding Your Voice as a Mother Activist
Workshop Handout for Giving Birth to Your Activist Self: Finding Your Voice as a Mother Activist International Conference on Motherhood Activism, Advocacy, Agency May 13-15, 2011 – Toronto, Ontario Presented by Sharon Aschaiek and Ann Douglas Awaken. Hear your activist…
Continue readingOne Woman. One Blog.: You Were Asking? About Volunteer Work and Citizen Smear Campaigns
I’ve never had so many people express so much interest in my volunteer work as they have in recent days — and I’ve been an active and committed volunteer for many years. In the letter of complaint I filed with…
Continue readingantigonemagazine.wordpress.com: “…There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.”
What are your dreams for yourself, your friends, your sisters, your daughters? Paint, draw, write, sketch, or decoupage your dreams on a postcard and send it to us. Help support Antigone Magazine and the Dreams for Women project by purchasing our 2011 Calendar in collaboration with Women’s Worlds. Filed under:
Continue readingOne Woman. One Blog.: How Stephen Harper Changed My Life — And How Ursula Franklin Spoke to My Heart
I never intended to become politically active. But after Stephen Harper was elected in 2006, Canada didn’t feel like Canada anymore and I felt compelled to start taking action. For a long time, I blogged here on a regular basis….
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: A disconnect between "mother" and "feminist"
“What does a feminist mother look like?” This is a question that I’m sure many feminist mothers have asked themselves and it is a question that has been asked over at blue milk along with the following ten questions. I feel like maybe I’ve answered them before, but I can’t find this anywhere in my blog so I’m answering them again or maybe for the first time.
1. How would you describe your feminism in one sentence? When did you become a feminist? Was it before or after you became a mother?
Feminism for me is freedom of choice for women no matter what the choice may be. I don’t really remember when I became a feminist, but I think that I was a feminist before I started calling myself one. I was fairly young. It was definitely long before I became a mother.
2. What has surprised you most about motherhood?
It’s really difficult to pick the surprise that has been the biggest because there has just been one surprise after another. The other morning I was surprised to be woken up at 6 am by my son shoving a tomato into my mouth. The tomato had been squished into an unrecognizable shape so for the first five minutes I had no idea what it was or what was happening. That was pretty surprising, I must say, but it’s not one of the bigger ones. I guess I’ll just go through the top five surprises in chronological order:
I. Breastfeeding is the most difficult thing ever for me at first. Everything else, knowing what to do, knowing what the baby wants, comes naturally. I thought it would be the other way around. Breastfeeding is supposed to be natural and beautiful. Where is this “bonding experience” that I keep hearing about? My baby and I seem to bond much more when he is asleep.
II. I no longer have the same personality. My sense of humour has completely disappeared. Nothing is funny. Everything is serious.
III. The physical and emotional exhaustion. This child is sapping all of my energy.
IV. Oh, hey! My personality is starting to come back.
V. The constant judgement from other people. How much effort it takes not to judge other parents. Oh my god, is that mother feeding her two month old baby apple juice in a bottle? What is she thinking? Wait, stop. It’s none of your business. Apple juice is not a form of child abuse.
3. How has your feminism changed over time? What is the impact of motherhood on your feminism?
My feminism? I think it keeps getting a little angrier. The more I read and the more I learn, the more pissed off I get. Motherhood has had a huge impact because I’m focusing on new things. For example, now that I’m a mother, I’m seeing first hand how little domestic work is appreciated or valued. Since domestic work is often considered women’s work, it is a feminist issue.
4. What makes your mothering feminist? How does your approach differ from a non-feminist mother’s? How does feminism impact upon your parenting?
My son is only two, so right now my main purpose as a mother is take care of his basic needs, such as food. He has a lot of curiosity about the world around him and I have a lot of curiosity about how he’s seeing the world. I think that I’m curious about things that non-feminist mothers wouldn’t be curious about. My son loves anything with wheels: cars, trucks, trains, bicycles, etc. A non-feminist mother probably wouldn’t think about this very much because these are things that boys are “supposed” to like, but I do wonder how this happened. Is it really a boy thing? If it’s really a boy thing, then why are there pink cars being made? Isn’t pink supposed to be a girl thing? What happens when I give my son a doll? He puts it down and picks up a truck. Why is that?
And, of course, I cannot accept that “boys will be boys.”
5. Do you ever feel compromised as a feminist mother? Do you ever feel you’ve failed as a feminist mother?
My boy won’t play with dolls.
6. Has identifying as a feminist mother ever been difficult? Why?
When I was pregnant I felt a big disconnect between “feminist” and “mother.” I felt guilty about becoming a mother because I felt like I was betraying my feminist ideals. Now I realize that the two are definitely connected but it was something that I had to work through.
7. Motherhood involves sacrifice, how do you reconcile that with being a feminist?
Well, before I became a mother, I was sacrificing my free time doing work that I was okay with but for a company that I thought might be evil. There was little chance that I would ever make any advancements within this company or that the job would lead to a fulfilling career. I got laid off while I was on maternity leave and so did everybody else that I worked with, including the managers who I’m sure had sacrificed a lot of time to prove to the company that they were dedicated employees who should be managers.
What exactly was it that I was sacrificing when I had a baby? I didn’t have a career. I wasn’t on the up and up. I would have been laid off anyway. I wasn’t even taking any classes or going out all that much. Looking back, I do not have any difficulty reconciling the decision to have a child and what I gave up to have him and stay at home with him.
10. Do you feel feminism has failed mothers and if so how? Personally, what do you think feminism has given mothers?
I think that feminism has approached motherhood from the wrong angle. Yes, there is inequality between the sexes when it comes to parenting. There is kind of this idea floating around within feminism that the best way to deal with this problem is to not perpetuate it by having children. This is how I found myself pregnant and feeling guilty about taking a part in setting the movement back.
I have since realized that women becoming mothers are not the problem. Women choosing to be stay at home moms are not the problem. The problem is that mothers’ work in the home is not valued. The subsidized home daycares in Quebec went on strike last year. Why? Because they wanted to have the same salaries as the people working in CPEs. The people in CPEs make anywhere from $13-22 an hour. $13 an hour is not a lot, especially when you consider that they need to have post-secondary education to get these jobs. A couple of blog posts ago I wrote about the documentary the Nanny Business, which explores the ways in which nannies are exploited in Canada. People question my sanity if I say that I’m going to pay a babysitter minimum wage; I’ve been told by more than one person that this is way too much for a babysitter. People are not willing to pay very much money for childcare because it is work that they do not value.
What needs to change here is the way that people look at parenting. It’s a job with little reward. I’m not saying that having children isn’t rewarding at all; it is. But is saving a life rewarding for a doctor? Is winning a court case rewarding for a lawyer? Feeling good about a job well done is not the only compensation that they get. They also have colleagues, such as nurses and assistants, who are working with them.
The biggest problem, in my opinion, with motherhood is the lack of respect that is paid to it as a profession. If a woman does not want to have children, that is her choice, but other choices that other women make need to be respected, such as the choice to have children and even the choice to stay at home and raise them.
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: A disconnect between "mother" and "feminist"
“What does a feminist mother look like?” This is a question that I’m sure many feminist mothers have asked themselves and it is a question that has been asked over at blue milk along with the following ten questions. I feel like maybe I’ve answered them before, but I can’t
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: A disconnect between "mother" and "feminist"
“What does a feminist mother look like?” This is a question that I’m sure many feminist mothers have asked themselves and it is a question that has been asked over at blue milk along with the following ten questions. I feel like maybe I’ve answered them before, but I can’t
Continue readingantigonemagazine.wordpress.com: Attention Celebrities: We Want To Steal Your Purses!
Okay, maybe we don’t want to ‘steal’ your purses per se. Technically, we want you to donate them to our Purse Auction Fundraiser It’s in the Bag (www.itsinthebag.ca). So, if you are a celebrity, or someone who rubs shoulders with celebrities (whether in the media, blogging, movies, music, writing, or
Continue readingantigonemagazine.wordpress.com: “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
These postcards were sent by the Young Women Leaders Program, a mentoring program sponsored by the UCF Women’s Studies Program. YWLP originated at the University of Virginia, and UCF launched the program in the Orlando community. YWLP promotes middle school girls’ leadership abilities, pairing collegiate women with middle school girls.
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: Review of the Nanny Business
Last Saturday, the Philippine Women Centre of Quebec (PWC-Quebec) presented the Nanny Business, a documentary which focuses on the experiences that women have had with Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). The viewer is first introduced to Edelyn. …
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: Review of the Nanny Business
Last Saturday, the Philippine Women Centre of Quebec (PWC-Quebec) presented the Nanny Business, a documentary which focuses on the experiences that women have had with Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). The viewer is first introduced to Edelyn. In an attempt to provide for her family financially, Edelyn has left her
Continue readingFeminist Mom in Montreal: Review of the Nanny Business
Last Saturday, the Philippine Women Centre of Quebec (PWC-Quebec) presented the Nanny Business, a documentary which focuses on the experiences that women have had with Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). The viewer is first introduced to Edelyn. In an attempt to provide for her family financially, Edelyn has left her
Continue reading