Men don't become enslaved because women are freed
By Maj Britt Theorin, Chairwoman of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities
International women's day has been celebrated for close to a century. Women have demanded the right to employment, equality and the possibility to combine work and family life. No one else could have started this revolution on our behalf. In many countries, we have come a long way, but the resistance of men is great. This is sad - men do not become enslaved because women are freed.
Men have a lot to gain from turning the situation around. Men pay a high price for our rigid sex roles - which prevent men from showing emotions, spending time with their children and living longer. Many men not only want to father children, but also want to be daddies - It is not too complicated to become a father, but becoming a dad requires time and commitment.
Sweden instituted parental leave in 1974, but in this new century, 61% of Swedish fathers fail to take out a single day of paternity leave. Only 2% of the Swedish private sector employers have taken steps to make it easier for male employees to combine work and family life. Fathers stay at home with sick children only half as often as mothers do. This is what reality looks like in one of the world's most egalitarian societies.
At times it is not just the policies of employers, men's wish to be engaged daddies is sometimes also resisted by women. Women see the child rearing as their domain, and consider that they have the right to the large majority of the parental leave. To share the vacuum cleaner is one thing, but the children is a whole other ball game. The man is seen as an intruder in a traditionally female world.
Similarly, the women's movement has often unintentionally pushed men away from embracing gender equality. They have rightly focused on male privilege, but this has often been interpreted as if men were merely the enemy. While this "men as the enemy" approach has been largely effective in bringing women together, it alienated men. It did not been make clear how much men have to gain from gender equality. Many men therefore see the women's movement as a threat to their privileges, and see any gains women make as direct losses to men.
Of course, the traditional feminist approach of focusing on equality as a "women's issue" was essential because of the extent of women's under-privilege compared to men. It was necessary for the female suffragettes to struggle for the right to vote, and for feminists in the seventies to fight for the right to abortion. But, it is impossible to reach gender equality merely by opening doors that were previously closed to women. Having the right to vote, having laws on paper, and having access to higher education will not lead to equality by themselves.
Every man must take personal responsibility for promoting equality in his home, work and social life. Since most leaders and decision-makers are male, they have a great responsibility as role models, and we can never achieve gender equality unless we have them on board. Political and business executives define cultural rules and must signal that equality is a key issue - not only for women, but also for men. It is no longer acceptable that executives punish employees who seek to balance their work and family responsibilities. Instead they must state that it is expected that fathers take parental leave.
On the international women's day 2001, in the European Parliament, we initiated a discussion on men and gender equality. Together with some of our foremost experts on Men and Gender Equality - Michael Kimmel and Lars Jalmert - we discussed issues such as: What happens to men when women gain power in the areas of working life and politics? Will men feel threatened and try to maintain the power structures in society, or will they take the chance to change the structures, creating new roles for men?
It was clear that discussions of equality can no longer solely concern the conditions under which women live. Attention must be focused on the male role. The time is ripe for women feminists to integrate men into the struggle against sexism.
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Endangered Wanniyala-Aetto Women sent as Sex Slaves to the Middle East.
By Wiveca Stegeborn, Professor of Anthropology. Professor Stegeborn has worked in Sri Lanka with the Wanniyala-Aetto for the past twenty-five years.
Hearsay brings the attention of Rich gentlemen from oil countries and the Middle East to the young Wanniyala-Aetto maidens from the rainforests of Sri Lanka. Wishing an exotic spice in their sex life the gentlemen desire something rare - someone no one has consumed before in their country, a curious endangered specimen.
The Wanniyala-Aetto
The hunting and gathering Wanniyala-Aetto people survived the Singhalese, Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch and English colonization by withdrawing into the Wanni, the Dry Zone tropical rain forest. Only recent times have made a major impact on them. In 1983 they were moved from the forest to give way for a national park. Their traditional subsistence as hunters and gatherers became prohibited. They were detained if they crossed the national park border, and some have been killed by the park guards. The government placed the forest people in a development area with Re-habilitation Villages.
Although their land was taken and their way of life prohibited they were never sold as slaves to other continents. The sex trade is new. None of their myths, legends and narratives have words about trafficking or brothels. They have no preparation or defense against this.
The tiny foraging community numbers less than the threatened elephants in Sri Lanka. The first sixteen Wanniyala-Aetto women have been delivered to their masters' houses at the beginning of February. The local recruiter is a Singhalese daughter of an alcoholic shopkeeper from the area. She receives 7000 Rupees per woman. This is a considerable sum in Sri Lanka (the salary of a government school teacher is 6000 Rs.). The shopkeeper's daughter believes the job descriptions presented by the Arabic agents from the capital and urbanized Sinhalese women from the west coast visit the Wanniyala-Aetto village to reconfirm the stories.
The Girls
The future for the Wanniyala-Aetto girls in a disintegrating society seems unpromising compared to life in Kuwait, Bahrain, Riyadh, Dubai or Jordan. Signing the 5-year contract as a housemaid would allow them to wear silk saris with gold embroideries, many gold bangles and jeweled necklaces every day. Such a life is a tempting alternative for a girl inside a government Rehabilitation Village.
Once the local recruiter has a group of about 20 women, a minibus arrives to take them from their forest homes to the capital. The first transport arrives without prior notice to the village at eleven o'clock at night. The girls have to depart instantaneously. Seven hours later they disembark from the minibus in the city center of Colombo. There they have to wait for another vehicle that takes them the last kilometer to a private house or a hotel suite where the agents evaluate the human merchandize. This process takes about 3-5 days - no one yet has had the chance to tell what happens inside.
Although the transactions appear arbitrary and sudden they are well prepared. As soon as they have signed contracts, the girls, on their own initiative, have to seek out a hospital in Colombo for a physical health check and a consultation with Family Planning. Family Planning in India and in Sri Lanka generally means sterilization. Nonetheless, today there are alternatives such as a hormone injection that lasts five years. The reason for this "voluntary" action is said to prevent pregnancy when they come home on vacations. Travel documents such as visas and passports are delivered at the airport. The girls themselves don't know what destinations await them until the time of boarding the plane. The latest shipment was to Jordan on February 15.
Once the girls are dispersed in the Middle East they cannot flee nor tell anyone at home where they are. Many cannot write in the Sinhalese orthography, much less in Arabic or in Roman letters. Even if the rainforest women actually became housemaids, instead of sex slaves, there are severe obstacles to their training for such a position. The Wanniyala-Aetto speak an almost extinct language that few outsiders understand in their own country and surely no one in the Middle East.
Training in household knowledge is also problematic since the Wanniyala-Aetto women are trained under different living conditions. They cook on an open fire and collect food from the forest or in their swidden cultivation system. Compared to societies with some of the highest GNPs of the world, the transformation, although, voluntary, must be painful. According to The Foreign Employment Bureau in Sri Lanka even some, non Wanniyala-Aetto, Sri Lankan women in the Middle East are "subjected to harassment because they were not familiar with the work expected of them and lacked training," (A M J Perera, 2001).
Making Change
The government of Sri Lanka was contacted through its Embassy in Sweden at the beginning of February, in an attempt to end this exporting. The name of the contact person and the address of the travel agency connected to the first delivery of women were attached, including the telephone numbers. Time past, but the Embassy replied with silence. The contact was renewed and we were informed that the matter had been forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka. The Ministry would conduct an investigation. We were advised to await their reply. The travel agency is still open.
Meanwhile human rights workers are investigating the airlines, the Bureau of Foreign Employment and the Office of Emigration. We wish to know if the travel documents and the passports are legal. People are afraid to talk. It is hard to obtain information. The lack of travel documents before departure, the medical check-ups in a hospital where the physician does not know the women, the changing of vehicles in the transport and the irregularity of the departures makes it hard to trace the trade agents and their superiors further up the hierarchy. Indications point toward a minister's son and toward officials of the opposition party - dangerous to confirm for someone with Sri Lankan citizenship.
Superintendent of Police and the Director of the Children and Women Bureau, Ms. P. Di-wakara suggests that there are several incidents pointing toward forged documents and illegal trade (personal communication to my assistant Feb. 20, 2001).
First, the airport branch office of the Bureau of Foreign Employment would have reacted had they found a passport holder with a "warige" ("tribe") name. Only once, in 1996 had the Wanniyala-Aetto left the country. It was on the front page of all of the newspapers. They flew to attend the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, a UN meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
Second, the Bureau of Foreign Employment holds a three-week course for future housemaids teaching them how to make a bed, use a kitchen and clean a house. No Wanniyala-Aetto woman has participated.
Third, the families in the Rehabilitation Villages or in the buffer zone forest should have an address where they could reach their daughters any time.
The employment conditions of the Wanniyala-Aetto women fulfilled none of these requirements; hence, their employment was most likely illegal.
A women's organization in Colombo that works against women's exploitation abroad has agreed to give an awareness campaign in our closest town Mahaiyangana. The testimony of the women's organization will hopefully reach the local recruiters, the transporters of the indigenous women to the capital, hospital personnel, the local police and, not the least the Wanniyala-Aetto women themselves.
A subsequent visit is planned for Dambana, the largest Wanniyala-Aetto village in the forest. The indigenous women can ask questions and the families that have lost their daughters can ask for help in tracing them. If we succeed in stopping the trafficking the Wanniyala-Aetto would still have approximately 380 women of reproductive age. This may be enough for their survival. Otherwise, at this rate, these young potential bearers of "Motherhood and Family" will all be gone for export by the end of September this year.
Meanwhile, unaware that the golden days of 7000 Rupees per recruited women may be soon ending the female recruiter knocks the door from house to house. A new list is taking shape. This time the late legendary chief, Uru Warige
Tissahamy's granddaughter is included. They now await the nighttime vehicle.
REFERENCES:
Perera, A. M. J. 2001 February 7. "Lankan maids suffer abuse in Gulf." In Hindustan Times. http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/080201/detFOR13.asp
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Action Alert on Children's Rights
By Action Canada for Population and Development
In September 2001, the ten-year review of the 1990 World Summit for Children
(WSC+10) will be held at the United Nations in New York. This UN General Assembly Special Session on Children will review the progress made in the lives of children since the 1990 World Summit, and since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. The Special Session is expected to result in a renewed commitment and pledge for specific actions in the coming decade to respect and fulfill the human rights of children, including adolescents, as outlined in the Convention.
The Second Preparatory Committee meeting for the upcoming Special Session on Children was recently held at the UN in New York (January 2001). At this meeting, the draft outcome document entitled A World Fit for Children, which was prepared by UNICEF acting as the Special Session secretariat, was discussed by government delegations. Governments, including the government of Canada, expressed the view that the draft document did not meet their expectations. Among its many weaknesses are the lack of attention given to sexual and reproductive rights, insufficient commitments to address the range of issues facing adolescents - who are children as defined by the
Convention - as well as very weak references to health issues generally. This is all the more surprising since HIV/AIDS is allegedly a "new challenge" identified in the draft document.
The Return of Right-Wing Organizations
This WSC+10 review process will provide another opportunity for right-wing interest groups to redouble their efforts to roll back the historic progress made at UN Conferences in the 1990s, such as at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, as well as their respective review processes, held in 1999 and 2000. Indeed, during the recent Preparatory Committee meeting a number of representatives from right-wing organizations were present, much like at the Cairo+5 and Bejing+5 review processes. Furthermore, they were more disruptive than ever before.
Sadly, the youth caucus became the battleground for right-wing organizations aiming to undermine the gains made at Cairo and Beijing. The youth caucus had a large group of youth from so-called "pro-family" and "pro-life" groups who wanted to focus the discussion on issues relating to the family, parental rights, and chastity.
Many of the same issues that were debated at the Cairo+5 and Beijing+5 review processes are being debated again this year. Once again, the right-wing is promoting the concept of the "ideal" family as the nuclear family based on a man and woman united by marriage and their children - despite the fact that the nuclear family is not the norm in many parts of the world, and the fact that many families are neither safe, particularly for young girls, nor models of gender equality.
Right-wing governments and groups are also attempting to insert language in the outcome document that would strengthen parental authority and control to the detriment of established children's rights. For instance, they are calling for language to be included to the effect that HIV/AIDS counseling for children and adolescents would only be available with the "knowledge of parents", and generally oppose providing information, education and services to adolescents with respect to their sexual and reproductive health and rights, without parental consent. Clearly, the adoption of such language must be fought against as it could result in significant damage to young people's access to reproductive health services.
Of great concern is the fact that right-wing organizations are aggressively promoting the idea that "instead of teaching children how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, we should teach them the culture of chastity and self-control". They are demanding the deletion of the statement that "young people should receive guidance and support in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections" and want statements on "abstinence" as the only strategy to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Right-wing representatives also reject any recognition of the special concerns of the girl child. For instance, with respect to basic education, they are calling for the removal of language that calls for girls' education to be accorded a top priority.
Furthermore, right-wing organizations are also demanding specific protection for the fetus to be included in the outcome document, accompanied by a recognition that the "fetus is a basic phase of childhood".
The U.S. delegation sent by the Bush administration to the Preparatory Committee included a representative of a right-wing group called the Family Research Council, and indicated in its speech to other governments that it intended to support some of these so-called "pro-family" amendments.
The Importance of the Special Session on Children
It is critically important that the language that is included in the outcome document emerging from the upcoming UN General Assembly Special Session on Children does not undermine the gains that were made at the Cairo and Beijing conferences and at the Cairo+5 and Beijing+5 review processes. If there were to be any weakening of the language coming out of the WSC+10, it would encourage further and more aggressive activism by socially conservative interest groups and could set a dangerous precedent for future agreements.
Furthermore, although consensus documents emerging from UN Conferences are policy documents rather than legal instruments or binding treaties, they are often used as a basis for the development of standards to interpret international human rights expressed in international conventions. Simply stated, any language coming out of the WSC+10 is likely to influence the interpretation and implementation of international human rights treaties.
The Need for Canada to Take a Leading Role
Canada is one of the few countries contributing money ($500,000) towards the Special Session on Children. Canada should also be commended for its strong position with respect to sexually exploited and war affected children. These issues are clearly important - but Canada needs to be equally strong in all areas that affect the health and well being of the world's children.
It is particularly important for Canada to take a leading role with respect to sexual and reproductive health and rights - especially given the agenda of the new American administration in this area. President Bush's re-instatement of the Mexico City Policy, also known as the "global gag rule", on his first day of office sent a clear message of the new administration's position with respect to reproductive rights. Under this policy, non-U.S. based organizations accepting certain USAID funds cannot use their own, separate funds to provide legal abortions, lobby government or organize public information campaigns on the subject of abortion.
During the recent Preparatory Committee meeting, the U.S. government delivered a statement emphasizing "the vital role the family plays in upbringing of children". It also attacked the draft outcome document for "going too far in asserting entitlements based on economic, social and cultural rights" and stated that the "human rights-based approach...pose[s] problems as used in this text." As well, although the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by all but two countries in the world - the U.S. and Somalia - the new Bush administration has stated that it has no plans to send the Convention to the U.S. Senate for ratification. The Bush administration's agenda is unquestionably fuelling the fire of right-wing organizations.
The Need for Action
It is vital that the outcome document emerging from the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children addresses all aspects of the lives of children, including adolescents. It is thus very important to ensure that sexual and reproductive health and rights are fully incorporated into the document. With this goal in mind, we urge those in Canada to write to Senator Landon Pearson (who led the Canadian delegation to the recent preparatory committee meeting), with a copy to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, stressing the following messages:
- In light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, of ongoing sexual exploitation and violence, and of continued high rates of early pregnancies world-wide, Canada must support the inclusion in the outcome document of a strong statement to guarantee full access of adolescents to sexual and reproductive health information, education and services;
- Canada must take a lead role in protecting the agreements made in Cairo, Beijing, Cairo+5 and Beijing+5, and ensuring that those commitments are fully incorporated into the outcome document emerging from the upcoming Special Session on Children; and,
- Canada must send a delegation knowledgeable about the Cairo Programme of Action and the Beijing Platform for Action, as well their respective review processes, to the next Preparatory Committee meeting (June 2001), as well as to the Special Session in September 2001.
You can write Senator Landon Pearson and Prime Minister Jean Chretién at the following addresses:
The Honorable Landon Pearson, The Senate of Canada, Room 210 East Block, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A4.
The Right Honorable Jean Chretién, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Canada, House of Commons,
Room 309-S Centre Block, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.
Action Canada for Population and Development
acpd@attglobal.net - www.acpd.ca
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Academy of Finland's Equality Plan shows the way for the science community
The Academy of Finland
A leading expert organization on research funding, the Academy of Finland has adopted a groundbreaking Equality Plan for 2001-2003. According to the plan the minority gender is to occupy at least 40 per cent of all research posts, expert positions and working group appointments. Where applicants are equally competent and qualified for the post, preference shall be given to the minority gender in the category of office holders concerned.
The plan applies to all researchers funded from Academy sources, but the Academy is hoping to see the whole science community in Finland and indeed around the world follow suit.
A report published by the European Commission in spring 2000 on 'Women and Science' indicated that the number of women professors at European universities is extremely low. The figures range from 5 per cent in the Netherlands to 18 per cent in Finland. Although Finland is very much in the European vanguard in terms of promoting gender equality in the research community, there is still plenty to do in this country to remove the remaining obstacles to women's advancement in research.
Applying to research staff with Academy funding, the Equality Plan is an integral part of the Academy of Finland's science policy strategy. The plan has been prepared with the best interests of science in mind: its ultimate aim is to increase the number of professional women researchers and to give them a better chance to move ahead.
The plan is valid for the period from 2001 to 2003 and will then be revised. In practice the implementation of the Equality Plan is in the hands of the newly established Equality Working Group. One of the working group's responsibilities will include the collection and analysis of data on the breakdown of Academy research funding by gender. These data will allow the working group to assess whether the plan is working as it is expected to and whether the targets have been reached.
Key measures of the Equality Plan
The Academy of Finland's Equality Plan comprises 36 measures, the most important of which are the following:
- The minority gender shall account for at least 40 per cent of all appointments to research posts, expert positions and working groups. Where applicants are equally competent and qualified for the post, preference shall be given to the minority gender in the category of office holders concerned.
- The Academy of Finland shall look into ways in which a greater number of women researchers could be appointed to posts of Academy Professor in the disciplines hosted by the Research Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering.
- Research teams applying for funding shall provide an account of the project's or team's gender breakdown. It is also required that leaders of Academy-funded projects report on the gender breakdown of staff recruited into their research projects both when submitting their final report and when applying for new funding. This information will also be used for purposes of compiling statistics.
- Extensions will be granted to research posts and projects on grounds of maternity, paternity and parental leave. The Academy of Finland will also encourage men researchers to make use of their legal right to parental leave.
- There are two measures that discuss financing: First, the plan says that researchers with minor dependants may be entitled to a 20 per cent increase in scholarships awarded for researcher training or employment abroad. No other European country has anything comparable. Second, special grants are available for women and young researchers for periods of 2 - 6 months for purposes of preparing research plans. This incentive money may also be awarded to researchers returning to work after child-care leave.
- The role of information receives special attention in the Equality Plan because feedback from researchers and leaders of research projects suggests that neither are very well informed about the procedures applied in conjunction with maternity, paternity and parental leave, for instance.
The Equality Plan encourages public administration, universities and research institutes to join in the work of researchers funded from Academy sources because gender equality is influenced by a number of factors that lie beyond the Academy's scope of duties. In particular, the plan highlights the importance of developing family policy legislation as well as the responsibility of the research sites, i.e. universities and research institutes in the promotion of gender equality.
For further information contact Hannele Kurki, hannele.kurki@aka.fi
(Chair of the Academy of Finland working group that drew up the Equality Plan)
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Women United Against Free Trade and Racism
Excerpts from a statement by the Canadian National Action Committee on the Status of Women given on International Women's Day, March 8, 2001
Today we celebrate women's solidarity and sisterhood! Together we have moved forward and challenged all obstacles that still prevent us from achieving equality. We have dreams and courage to move on and up.
Everyday we meet women who have shown courage and determination in the face of insurmountable odds. Our movement that has taken so many hits from governments and right wing propaganda will continue! With every victory however small or seemingly insignificant, we gain strength and momentum.
Women give each other strength and belief in each other. The Women's Movement faces backlash from institutions and sectors of society that decide to attack and attempt to demobilize and destroy us. Whether this resistance is in the form of cutbacks to funding, inadequate representation by media, or patriarchy in general we continue to prevail. No force can stop our commitment, no force can consume our appetite for change, and no force can destroy our belief in equality and justice. The generations of women who have taken up the cause over the years have been unstoppable.
Women who have volunteered for organizations, women who have marched and chanted in rallies year after year and lobbied governments are our champions. There are too many women to name and some have crossed the Great River, however their spirit of courage and determination stays with us. We cannot become disillusioned; we cannot give an inch because we have too much to lose!
Women working in the front lines save women and children every day from pain, suffering and death. Governments have cut back funding so drastically, especially to services oriented to supporting survivors of violence against women, that many organizations have been forced to close their doors. Thank you women for being there for Aboriginal women, Black women, women of color, Franco-phone women, immigrant and refugee women, women with different abilities and our Two-Spirited Sisters. Without services such as safe houses, the death rate of women would be even higher. The services are far less than adequate. We need increased funding to transition homes, so women no longer have to suffer in silence. This area of work is critical to the advancement of women.
Immigration policies continue to discriminate against women of color and women of African descent. Women are separated from their families to come to this country and work in Canadian homes and care for families. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg on the abuse of migrant workers and mail order brides.
The level of stress in women's lives contributes to the many health problems that plague women and to the number of sick leave taken by women per year. The most pressing issue for working women is accessible and affordable childcare. We heard broken promise after broken promise on the Universal Childcare Program. When will the government deliver and make children a priority?
Women living in poverty are trapped by legislation that discourages them from seeking further education or employment. Lack of opportunity and lack of support from social workers guarantees a life of poverty for women. In addition, poor women are harassed by social workers, who are trained in interrogation techniques to inflict pain and stress on a daily basis. Poor women are blamed for being poor and this creates depression and anxiety that is sure to paralyze any will to progress.
Globalization
The social justice movement along with coalitions of women has the World Trade Organization (WTO) running scared. Seattle forever changed the agenda of the WTO and the World Bank. After shopping around the world only to learn that no city wants to be the next Seattle, the WTO finally found a host for its next meeting - a place where dissent is illegal and people have no right to freedom of assembly: the Persian Gulf Kingdom of Qatar. What a victory, what a movement of mainly young people and social justice organizations, so empowering, so encouraging!
World Women's March 2000
What a year it has been for the women's movement. The World March of Women 2000, initiated by the Federation des femmes du Quebec (FFQ), was the biggest event seen in decades. The March became the fuel to sustain us in believing in the cause. What a boost it was for women globally. New vision and new energy has been pumped into our veins.
What a sight to see 50,000 women on Parliament Hill. We have a vision to end poverty and violence. We presented our Demands and the result was empowering. We have renewed hope, renewed vision, that will never be tempered. In all our diversity, it was like looking at the future. The colors, the sounds, the focus, the strength and the unity were overwhelmingly emotional and vital. The government may have minimized the response to our 13 Demands, however the force was maximized.
From the New York rally to the "Fraser River Journey for Justice", women were mobilized, women were energized, women were changed. Women United Will Never Be Defeated! When real fundamental change like this occurs, we can never go back to accepting the unacceptable, the average or the mundane. This empowering paradigm shift was felt worldwide. Because of the World March, we now view the world and ourselves differently. What an experience, one that we can carry with us forever!
NAC's Research Project "From Local to Global"
Our organization's participatory action research project "From Local to Global" aims to document the ways in which women and women's organizations are affected by globalization. With the first phase now completed, we are one step closer to bringing a much-needed integrated feminist analysis and action plan to the many layers of women's social and economic lives. In this phase, we examined what women and women's organizations know about women and globalization in Canada; what globalization means for women and work; what links we make between globalization and the state; what the changes are in federal social programs and policies; what the strategies are for change?
Here are some of the highlights coming out of answers to the above questions. Women indicated that through their experiences, they have concluded that:
- Globalization intensifies inequalities and oppression;
- Jobs and employment standards as well as social programs are being eroded through the process of globalization;
- Social costs are shifted downward, social citizenship is eroding and there is decreased social supports;
- There is an increase in flexible and non-standard work, cuts in public sector jobs and services and increased unpaid work,
We are presently engaging in Phase II where the research will expand on the organizing strategies, recommendations for policy development and direction for further research.
The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia
And Related Intolerance (WCAR)
This year, Aboriginal women, Women of color, Black women, women with disabilities, Jewish women and Lesbian women are preparing for the WCAR that will be held in Durban, South Africa from August the 31st to September the 7th, 2001. The victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance will take the real message to the world. It has been shown that the darker the color of skin, the more one is a victim of racism. The white race is the principle benefactor of the outcomes or racism.
Our issues are very clear and definitive. Let's move forward into this next year with the change on our minds and protest and struggle in our hearts! We will win!
Terri Brown
President National Action Committee on the Status of Women
http://www.nac-cca.ca/
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