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Kinesis
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VMJIDE 2 VSW vindicated in 1 4 Five massage » ^ Victoria, but City Hall therapists tell us why , to ^ n battle looms April 29. they like it °— ■ Don't miss the most iin appealing event of the season... 4 BCFW to benefit 1 6 How to learn, and f2- MW women's groups in keep our power? Visit Terrace, Rupert. It's a with the Learning fine way to celebrate Collective ^1 ^9 NHl Mother's Day CO " W fc^Mfe I ffS 1 CO —ft, !*SH 7 Developing 1 8 Kinesis goes on CO resources for women Rape Relief's tour of S o B^^ north of Nanaimo the war zone and takes TM -* ■ ^ you along, too r/ Women , B.C. V6H 1 0 Shades of "The 20 Women and Scarlet Letter". One Socialism: accounting woman's experience for our experience. of an oppression we Reviewed .* think died in the bad S&tffe old days ^ 1 1 March 8, and Van 24 Make the anti- »?w a couver feminists were nuke/feminist | £ i ^ out to celebrate connection while < ft you're living. And turn out for the massive s S c* demo April 26 SUBSCRIBE TO KiMffJiJ *£.w Published 10 times a year by Vancouver Status of Women PS-3 1090 West 7th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V6H1B3 - S 4> "1^~^T7 Subscriber $ 8 <» Member/Subscriber $10 Institution $15 Sustainer $50 Name n fib Address > Payment Enclosed Bill Me >._; , Please remember that VSW operates on inadequate funding —we need member support! Lcr&jt. APRIL 80 01 KiMESiS news about women that's not in the dailies Sylvie Beauregard LOCAL MOVEMENT Thanks to your tremendous support, we 're still here! VSW vindicated in Victoria, but City Hall appeal is April 29 By Debra Lewis First, the good news. VSW is in business for another year. In mid-March, we received notice from the Provincial Secretary that we would be receiving a grant of $86,700 for the coming year. It's positive news in that we have received the first increase in dollar terms since we began receiving provincial funds in 1974. Obviously, the increase will help compensate for inflation over the past year. However, even this increase is still woefully inadequate to make up for cutbacks we have had to make in the past. Our fight at city hall, however, still continues. On March 4, City Council turned down the recommendation of the Social Planning Department that VSW be granted $9,920 (one-half of our request) to reinstate an advocacy service for women. VSW's ombudservice was discontinued in 1978 due to staff cutbacks and the unwillingness of the provincial government to fund this type of service. It is becoming more and more clear, however, that women in Vancouver rely on us for assistance in a variety of social services and legal areas. We believe that it is essential that City Council recognize the important contribution we make to women in Vancouver. Without some tangible support from Council, operating an effective advocacy service is virtually impossible. Alderwoman Bernice Gerard has led a cam paign against our funding on the grounds that we have policies advocating pro-choice on abortion and protection of rights of lesbians and gay men. She has made it clear that she realizes that we perform other important services for women in Vancouver, but that we must be made an example of. In effect, she wants to punish VSW and the women who use our services and programs because of her personal disagreement with two of our policies. VS W is having an OPEN HOUSE April 25 and you are invited! We have been encouraged by the level of support we have had from women's groups, individuals in the community, and in the press. We are appealing the decision of council and need your support in this process. Our appeal date is April 29 at 7:30 in the evening. This is what you can do in the meantime: * call those members of City Council who voted against our funding and tell them that women need the kind of advocacy service we propose. Those who voted against us are Mayor Volrich,.and Alderpersons Bernice Gerard, Doug Little, George Puil and Warnett Kennedy. * write to Council and let them know you support VSW. Send us a copy of the letter or send it directly to us and we will make a copy before sending it on. Have any organization you may be involved in write letters, too. Letters should be addressed to The Mayor and Members of Council, City Hall, 453 W. 12th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. * come to the Council meeting on April 29 at 7:30 in the Council chambers at City Hall. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT. In addition, VSW is holding an open house and celebration of our provincial funding on Friday, April 25 from 3 - 7 p.m. at the YSVf offices, 1090 W. 7th. We hope that you will come and re-acquaint yourselves with our services and programs, as well as just have a good time. We also intend to invite members of Council to attend to see what we really do. It should be noted that none of those who voted against our grant have ever visited our office or even called to find out information on what we do. We need to change two votes in order to get the funding we need for the advocacy service. Although we have a majority of support on Council (the vote was 6 to 5), eight affirmative votes are needed for a community grant. Hopefully, with your support we can win. Q Welfare advocacy is now being organized in Vancouver By Cole Dudley A system of welfare advocacy is finally emerging in Vancouver. Previously, there have been individuals who worked with, and for, welfare recipients. Now welfare recipients and otner concerned individuals have joined together to form the Welfare Action Coalition. The need for this is clear to anyone, who is on, or who has worked with Human Resources programs. People on assistance are denied access to information about their rights. A booklet on GAIN rights is available from the office of the Ministry of Human Resources, but it mainly deals with routine financial situations.. When irregularities arise (such as extra money, family or court matters, discrepancies over policy or treatment ) most people do not know where they stand or how to find out their rights. This seems paradoxical for a system that exists for the benefit of powerless people. The problem of discovering your rights grows with the inconsistency of information that seeps out from the MHR offices. One person receives aid with her education, another is refused; one receives family care and another is not even told she has that alternative. These situations, and others, occur repeatedly. Why does it happen? Aren't the supervisors and social workers told about policy and policy changes? And if they are told, why don't they share this knowledge with their clients? To answer these questions we must realize the social worker's position. MHR workers are put in a position that wields power over people who feel like victims at the outset. The workers are able to interpret policy according to their own personal biases and sometimes intimidate their clients right out of the office or into inaction. This is not true of all workers of cburse. Some go out of their way to do all they can for their clients. But these exceptional people soon become swamped and unable to give adequate personal attention to each case. Consequently, misunderstand- Placard portrays Grace McCarthy, minister of human resources, as seen through the eyes of demonstrator protesting "Human Resources Week". ings occur due to lack of time (on the worker's part) and lack of information (on the client's part). Many welfare recipients do not know and are not told of some of their basic rights — the right to homemakers to relieve family stress, to babysitting while on VTP grants, to a special financial worker, or to earn an extra $100. a month. Moreover, people on assistance are seldom informed that they have the ability to change workers if they experience antagonism' or lack of interest. Nor are they told of their right to appeal a decision, or of their right to challenge the minister to reverse even the appeal result. Information leads to knowledge. Knowledge leads to power. Therefore, if welfare recipients are to have some power over their lives, they need a means to accumulate and...dispense information. The. need is great for the Welfare Coalition to not only inform people of their basic rights, but also to study the welfare policies, andi^qrk towards raising them to poverty leyels. A system of" advocacy and information is being structured now in various Vancouver communities so people will feel more comfortable in approaching the ministry with their needs. Call us at VSW - 736 1313 - we'll put you in touch with the coalition. $ Richmond abortion services could be wiped out... Last year in Richmond: it was the final day for applications for membership in the Richmond Hospital Board Society if you wanted to be eligible to vote in the June annual general meeting elections. That day, the society was flooded with 230 new membership applications. At the annual general meeting, three new members were elected to the board of Richmond General : Ken Andrews, Albert Fox and Denis Wonderly. All are anti-choice. This year there are three more seats on the board coming up for election at the annual general meeting. If anti-choicers were.to scoop the pool, they'd have a majority of six on an eleven-member board. The Richmond Pro-Choice Movement is working to.counteract anti-choice single-issue interference in the functioning of Richmond General Hospital. Contact them at 685 4035 (leave a message). Or write ^o them c/o Ms Bonnie Fidler, 11491 Williams Road, Richmond V6A 1J3. Residents of Richmond are eligible to become members of the hospital society. Last . day for applications: May 15. Q _- Kinesis April 80 RIGHT TO CHOOSE Access to abortion diminishing in Victoria, protest growing By Marine Boag No abortions have been done at Victoria General Hospital for over a month. Their abortion committee, which turned down all but a few of the applications they received in January and February, has had no, more applications for four weeks. G.P.s are sending all their abortion patients to Royal Jubilee Hosptial (RJH). Since the shutdown at Vic General, the number of abortions being done at Jubilee has increased 300 per cent; from 10 a week to 30. Jubilee executive-director Michael Butcher said: "We're already packed to the rafters with people on waiting lists This is certainly something we don't need. I don't think we're prepared to do all the abortions forever. It's the kind of thing no hospital enjoys doing, and we can't be automatically expected to pick up the extra load." He said that if the situation goes on too long, "the Board would have to set a new policy on the issue." The RJH Board chairman, Eric Simmons, said the Jubilee will continue to do all the abortions, at least until April. "Our position right now is to wait and see what happens at Vic General." The Vic General Board of directors has made a series of attempts to override their anti-abortion abortion committee, and restore the hospital's abortion services. At their meeting last week, they passed a motion appointing RJH's liberal committee as the committee for Vic General, every alternate month. This means that there will be no abortions done at Vic General during the months of May, July, September, and November: but on every other month, abortions approved by Jubilee's committee will be done at Vic General. Last year, when both committees shared the same philosophy, they took turns monthly, to consider applications for abortions to be done in both hospitals. For the rest of this year, the Jubilee committee will continue to meet every week to consider their abortion requests, during the months of April, June, August, October and December, the abortions they approve can be done at Vic General. In 1979, Victoria General, with its modern day-care unit, performed 725 abortions: 2/3 of the total at both hospitals. The hospital's high rate of abortions, combined with the medical staff's involvement in the coroner's inquest into an abortion performed at 23 weeks on a mentally retarded woman led many doctors at Vic General to feel that there were "too many abortions being done." As one doctor said: "In this province, one out of every three pregnancies ends in abortion. B.C. has the highest abortion rate in Canada: that doesn't make me against abortion, but I think we do too many." Why B.C. has Canada's highest abortion rate There are many, reasons given to explain B.C.'s high abortion rate. Historically, the abortion repeal movement began in B.C. The federal political debate to legalize abortion in 1969 was led in the House by two NDP MP's from this province. Figures show that abortion has always been less difficult to obtain in B.C. In 1974,a survey by the Federal department of health showed that B.C. had a higher proportion of accredited hospitals than any other province. A spokeswoman from the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League said: "In Afenitoba, where only two accredited hospitals perform a significant number of abortions, 50$ of the Manitoban women having abortions last year had to get them in the States. B.C. has come the closest of all the provinces to making Canada's unworkable abortion law work." Perhaps the two best explanations to account for B.C.'s high abortion rate can be found in simple demographic statistics. Of all the provinces, B.C. has the most mobile population; and an unstable lifestyle is not conducive to raising a family. B.C. also has the lowest percentage of Roman Catholics per capita of all the provinces. There is a statistically sig- . nificant correlation between the number of legal abortions and the percentage of Catholics in the total population: the higher the percentage of Catholics in the population, the lower the number of abortions per 100 live births. In a political context, the greater the number of Catholics in a province, the more powerful the church is as a political institution. Hospitals run by Catholic orders refuse to provide abortion services, even when non- Catholic physicians are prepared to abort non-Catholic patients. Up until 1972, when St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital became Victoria General Hospital, no abortions were done at all. Today there are still many Catholic doctors on the staff. The hospital's present therapeutic abortion committee was chosen in December by the hospital's medical director, Dr. Carlow, and Dr. Shorting, chief of the medical staff. The three men they selected were described by a hospital administrator as "one conservative, one liberal, and one middle- of-the-roader." Four alternate doctors were also chosen, two of whom were described by Dr. Carlow as "mildly pro-lifers." The hospital board approved their committee for their 12-month term of office, assuming, as Cathy Mountain, a board member, said "that they would follow the previous abortion committees' policies." But they didn't. At their first two meetings in January, the new committee turned down 27 of the 31 requests submitted. The "liberal member, Dr. Cooper, and the "conservative", Dr. Calder, voted as expected: Dr. Ripley made an unexpected decision. He said that as a GP he'd previously "sent as many girls to the therapeutic abortion committee as any doctor. Then I'd wash my hands of the whole deal, saying its their decision. Now that I'm on the abortion committee, it's my decision, and I'm aware of ending the life of a fetus." The committee's rejections caused a flurry of re-applications to Jubilee, which was now required to do nearly all the city's abortions. To ease the pressure on Jubilee's facilities, the Vic General Board at their January meeting, authorized the Jubilee committee to consider applications for abortions to be done at both hospitals. This way, they could circumvent their anti- abortion committee. The Vic General committee responded with a letter to the board, questioning the legality of the move. After consulting a solicitor, the board learned that it was not possible for a hospital to have two therapeutic abortion committees working simultaneously, so on February 14, Vic General declared a moratorium on abortions that the Jubilee committee had approved. At their February meeting, the board managed to change the composition of the committee, by requiring that their four alternate members meet with them to decide on applications. The alternate members, Doctors Joan Archibald, Thomas Bailey, G. Ainsworth, and Lewis Harris, have met and talked together, but have had no applications to vote on. Dr. Cooper, the committee's chairman, is optimistic 'that the additional doctors will have a more liberal attitude. He thinks that the board was right to leave the committee alone and add the alternates. "With four more — although Dr. Harris will not be available to meet with us — I think we should get some reasonable applications passed." Dr. Cooper's idea of a reasonable application would be one for a woman whose method of contraception failed, and he personally would have passed about one-half of those applications originally submitted. He thinks that Dr. Archibald, the only woman on the committee, "is more understanding, and likely to have a liberal viewpoint." He hopes that his committee will be "a little more liberal, and take some of the load off Jubilee." The medical staff at Vic General are apparently ambivalent over the issue. At one meeting, they passed a motion that the abortion committee should disband and a new one be formed — but defeated a vote of non-confidence in them. To clear the confusion, the medical staff executive committee decided to poll the active medical staff (155 of the hospital's 400 doctors) on whether they thought the actions of the abortion committee were "appropriate" or At Vic General: ... if a woman has diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer of the uterus, she may be eligible for an abortion. ... if a woman has three children, a husband out of work, and is so depressed she can't sleep or look after her children because of her distress at being unwillingly pregnant, she would not be able to have an abortion. "too strict." The abortion committee simultaneously sent a letter to those being polled, justifying their refusal to allow abortions for "social or economic reasons", and asking for their colleagues' support. The responses to the poll were counted on March 4 : 97 doctors replied - 54 supported the committee, 43 thought they were too strict, and 55 didn't respond at all. The Canadian Abortion Rights Action League protested about the poll, stating that the doctors were being asked to evaluate the committee's performance rather than to state their opinions on the abortion issue. Spokeswoman Jennifer Lowen said: "We know of two pro-choice doctors - Jane Wright and Frances Adey - who are on Vic General 's active medical staff, so were eligible to vote, but did not receive any voting papers. We wonder how many others were left out, and why." A Vic General doctor who voted to support the committee saw the poll as a vote on whether or not the hoard should be allowed to interfere in the hospital's medical matters . "If we let the board overthrow an abortion committee, then we'd be setting a dangerous precedent, which, in the future, could allow an anti-abortion board to intervene and throw out a pro-choice committ- ee ' Turn to p. 19, col. 2 B.C. NEWS BCFW will share benefits with Terrace, Rupert women's groups By Maureen Bostock and Denise Still well The BCFW Subcommittee on Violence Against Women is holding a benefit dance on May 11 to observe Mothers' Day by raising funds for northern women. Northwest Women In Crisis has been named as one of two recipients of the proceeds of the benefit. We have written the following article to give women in the Lower Mainland a clearer picture of the conditions under which women in the north live and work and the problems of organizing for change in northern communities. Northwest Women In Crisis Society offers rape/assault, abortion and crisis counselling to women in Terrace and the surrounding communities of Kitimat, Hazel- ton, Smithers and Prince Rupert. The counselling aspect of our work has always been predominant as we are available to women on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week. We are funded by the provincial government to operate this 24-hour line through our provincial association, the Coalition of B.C. Rape Centres. A second function which we believe is extremely important is the educational work of offering rape awareness workshops throughout the northwest region. These workshops are intended to promote awareness of vulnerability and of what women can do to protect themselves from violence. Furthermore, we provide self defence training for women in Terrace and intend to broaden this to include training for women in other communities. Needed: more women's organizations Finally we see that as women involved in a movement for social change we must encourage the development of other women's organizations in the northwest so that the women's movement in the northwest has a broad framework — not one which is founded solely upon particular concerns but which addresses all aspects of women's oppression. Northwest Women In Crisis was created in November 1977. At that time we were a small group of five women who tenaciously engaged in developing an understanding of each other, of the work we were taking on and why it was important to us. We were unskilled; none of us had ever before worked collectively nor from a feminist basis of unity. We had broad based support from the community which encouraged us to continue struggling to develop a group process and training ourselves to prepare for the opening of the crisis line which occured in July of 1978. Since then our numbers have fluctuated, never exceeding the numbers of the original members, and it sometimes seems that the changes in membership have hampered our development. Today we are still confronting perhaps our most serious problem. The size of northern communities imposes an inevitable restriction on the number of women who feel they can make the kind of commitment demanded by an organization such as ours. We are constantly suffering from "burnout" as the demand of the work pulls us further and further away from seeing our own needs satisfied. The nature of our community is such that people do not make long-term commitments to stay here. People, leave, seeking greater stimulus in larger centres. I sense that this problem is one which will be eternal; that we shall never have enough women to handle even the most immediate and demanding tasks; that we shall always be too few. The solution is not easy to see; but I believe that it rests in part in our cohesion as a group — that, even if we are few in number, the stronger we become the more we will be able to offer each other the support we need individually and collectively to continue this work. Northwest Women in Crisis is perhaps most fortunate in having been drawn so readily into the Coalition of B.C. Rape Centres in April, 1978. The Coalition has provided us with a connection to the women's movement, through which we are able to gain access to information and ideas, to participation in a group process on which we can model our own group mechanics and gain access to the support of sisters who are willing to work on solutions to our problems with us. We are overwhelmed with the concern shown by the Nanaimo, Victoria and Vancouver centres that our needs as a northern isolated centre are met. Terrace is a community with a population of 10,000 people and 4,000 people in the outlying areas. It is located on the Yellowhead 16 Highway, 90 miles east of Prince Rupert and 395 miles west of Prince George. Terrace has been supported by a single primary industry: logging. The community has changed significantly over the last few years as the logging operations which feed the mills in Terrace are going further into the less populated areas (due to the overlogging of forest regions close to Terrace) and as there has been a suddent centralization of northern government offices in Terrace. The effect is that Terrace is becoming a service centre for the north, and more people employed by the logging industry are moving out to remote camps; thus changing the economic nature of the community from a boom-recession economy to a more stable inert service economy. The population of Terrace, too, has changed ' and, while transience is still a major problem, fewer people are attracted to this community for economic reasons. Fifteen per cent of the population of the northwest region is composed of native people of varied tribal groups. Many of the native people living in Terrace have had their rights taken away through the inequities of the Indian Act. The status native tribal councils have been fighting long and hard to gain recognition of their aboriginal rights to the land and that battle will continue until the governments settle land claims with the people. Native women in the north who have traditionally been deeply involved in tribal government are organizing to articulate their needs and to work towards change. While Terrace is at the intersection of the transportation routes in the northwest (road, rail and air) it is still a very isolated community, as are all northern towns. We are isolated from the major centre of Vancouver, having little access to the stimulus which city life offers. We are isolated from other northern communities by distance and often weather conditions which make travel in the region impossible. And, most of all, we in Terrace are isolated from each other, in that small communities hold little opportunity for people to develop friendships and form support relationships with each other. The meeting places of towns like Terrace are the taverns. Those of us who have chosen to live in or near communities such as the one we have just described do so because the north offers a unique opportunity. Here we are able to experience a lifestyle which demands a strong connection with the environment, and yet which gives a reward of being continually in contact with and being nurtured by the quiet and beauty of the mountains. We are very appreciative of the desire of the BCFW Subcommittee on Violence Against Women to express their support of northern women through this benefit. It is important that the women's movement be aware of and responsive to the needs of women who work and live under conditions which do not necessarily reflect those of the majority; We hope that this article and the benefit will draw women across the province closer together to permit greater understanding and communication and ultimately the realization of our common goals. 0. ► IWD Press Gang It is important that the women *s movement be aware of and responsive to the needs of women who work and live under conditions which do not necessarily reflect those of the majority B.C. NEWS Prince Rupert Options for Women is the other northern group which the lower mainland BCFW benefit will support May 11. Here they explain their ongoing struggle to set up a transition house in their area. By Susan Tickson for Prince Rupert Options for Women Many members of the Prince Rupert Options for Women (PROW) attended a regional Family Violence Conference held in Terrace approximately three years ago. This conference initiated our interest in the general topic of family violence in the British Columbia northwest and the need for public awareness and education regarding this serious social problem. Shortly after the conference we were contacted by Isobel McKee. She asked us to help her sister, Maud Rawson. Maud had been severely beaten by her husband and had suffered brain damage and permanent paralysis of her legs. Although Isobel had made repeated visits to the RCMP, the Attorney-General's department and to many lawyers on Maud's behalf, charges were not laid until nine months later (in the spring of 1978). That was shortly after Rosemary Brown had brought the matter up in the provincial legislature. PROW acted in an advocacy and support role for Maud (setting up a Trust Fund for her), and supported her through a very difficult trial which resulted in Fred Rawson being found guilty and sentenced to an 18 month jail term. Maud Rawson's case focused our concern Maud's case focused our concern on the needs of battered women in Prince Rupert. We applied for and received a Secretary of State grant in 1978. With the grant, we hired a university student, Barbara Fields, to do a study to determine whether or not a serious problem does exist in Prince Rupert, and if so, how the needs of battered women could be best met. Ms. Fields met with representatives of all government social agencies, churches and religious groups and many concerned individuals in the city. She ran into serious difficulty gathering official statistics. The coding and filing systems of the various agencies did not discriminate between types of assault or causes as to why individuals were using the services provided. As well, due to policies of confidentiality, all files were not open to public perusal. For these reasons the majority of statistics obtained are professional opinions. The following are some statistics on the incidence of battering in Prince Rupert: DOMESTIC DISPUTE ESTIMATES RCMP — estimate of one domestic dispute a day — 436 attended cases of family violence in 1979 Probation Services - Aug. '77-June '78: 25 Emergency Ward: 4 per month. In addition, Obstetrics receives 10 per year Social Workers: A - 4 per week B - 6 per week C -12 per year D - 1 in 8 months E - 6 per year As a result of her study, Fields recommended that a Transition House be established in Prince Rupert as the first of nineteen recommendations focused on the needs of women in violent home situations. As a result of recommendations of the brief, PROW made a commitment to work toward establishment of a Transition House in Prince Rupert. We contacted similar situations and facilities already established throughout the province, and formulated a model of an optimum facility. When funded, we proposed to establish a house to be run on a cooperative basis by the occupants themselves, in order to foster a home-like but responsible, independent atmosphere. The affairs of the house would be governed by.a Board of Directors elected from the annual meeting of the members of the Prince Rupert Transition House Society. As a group, we expressed our concern to the community at large and asked for responses. We received letters from all sectors of the community and gathered close to five hundred names on a petition. We presented our proposal to Prince Rupert City Council and received their wholehearted support. During this time it became clear to us that there are no adequate facilities for women in crisis in Prince Rupert. After consultation with the local RCMP the group decided to operate emergency shelters on a volunteer basis. It was hoped that these shelters would at least alleviate the most severe cases. In the year we operated the system we received an average of one call a week. We were forced to close down the Emergency Shelter System in the fall of 1979 after one year of operation because many volunteers were experiencing ;'burn out" due to the heavy emotional stress involved. We feel we must clearly define the difference between the need met by our emergency shelter system and a Transition House. Our emergency shelter system, like the policy of Ministry of Human Resources (MHR) of placing families in hotel rooms, was only designed to remove a woman and her children from a violent and dangerous situation. We were unable to address ourselves to the real needs of the woman and her family. We were not even able to support or sustain her through the accompanying trauma. All we were able to do was remove the woman, and her children, from the violence, and then, the next day, force them to return to the same continuing situation. A Transition House on the other hand, is designed to give much more adequate help. A woman and her children are permitted to remain within the sanctuary of the house until they have learned to deal with the trauma of their situation and address themselves to their own real needs —. such as marital counselling, job skills counselling, budgeting, in fact, the entire range of services available — in order to resolve the conflict within the relationship, or, if necessary, to establish an independent life. After completing a proposal for funding, PROW submitted it to the local MHR office. The proposal was endorsed and supported, and sent to the regional office in Terrace. At this stage, the proposal was rejected. The reason stated was that there is a "relatively low number of women requiring emergency shelter". We feel that the statistics we have gathered dispute this statement. One call regarding a serious domestic dispute a day taken by the RCMP indicates a problem of very significant proportions. The rejection of this proposal by the regional MHR office directed us back to the community to reassess the need. We had further discussions with local social workers and agency representatives who reaffirmed their support for our position. As well, we reported back to City Council who immediately have the transition house top priority status and requested reappraisal by the regional and provincial ministry levels. After struggling through a lot of red tape we were able to set up a meeting with Grace McCarthy in the fall of 1979. The minister assured us that she considered the problem significant, however she was not sure a Transition House would be the solution. She promised us that she and ministry officials would review the situation and respond once again to our proposal. In February we received the ministry's response. They have formulated a policy designed to answer all requests for transition houses from small rural communities. The policy is an attempt to use a volunteer community group to administer a system of placing battered women and their children in hotels for a maximum stay of five nights. In addition to paying hotel and meal costs, the ministry will pay the volunteer group $5.00 a head for administering the policy. We have rejected this policy. It seems designed to solve the troublesome "problem" of repeated requests for funding from smaller communities rather than the very real needs of battered women. Most recently PROW sponsored a public meeting which initiated the formation of the Prince Rupert Transition House Society. Many members of PROW have been elected to the Board of Directors of this society. We have made a strong commitment to working towards establishing a Transition House in Prince Rupert. Since becoming fully aware of the problem, we have tried very hard to document the need of battered women, and give piecemeal aid to victims of family violence. Our intention is to continue to work towards establishing a safe refuge for women and their children who experience family violence. Q Economic violence against mothers That's the theme for the May 10 celebrations of mothers' lives, organized by the East End Mothers' Group. They're planning a day of speak-outs, song, arts, crafts and good things to eat for Saturday, May 10,10 am - 4 pm, Grandview Park (next to Britannia Community Centre. The speak- out will include a single mother on welfare, an immigrant mother, a grandmother, a lesbian mother, a daycare petitioner and a Wages for Housework speaker. Cultural events will all have mothers and grandmothers as their theme. If you have art to contribute, call 253 7809. For more information, call Ellen: 253 3395 or Dar- lyne: 253 4391 local 51. Plan to come, and to bring your mom. 0 Bionic Barter convicted The judge decided: Sussy Selbst, Muckamuck manager, stepped on picketer Pat Barter's foot by accident. Barter, said the judge, believed she had been assaulted when she kicked back. So he charged Barter with assault and gave her a six-month discharge. At one point during the hearings about the Feb 16 altercation on the SORWUC line outside the restaurant, Selbst alleged that Barter had dragged her, singehandedly, 100 yards. SORWUC's strike for a first contract at Muckamuck continues. Update next month.'Q ACROSS B.C. Developing feminist services north of Nanaimo KINESIS: Can you explain, first of all, what your project is? DENISE: It's called the Women's Services Training Program. It is a one-year pilot project sponsored by the Secretary of State Women's Program. There are 10 similar projects in Canada, not divided by provinces. We are the only region where there is hardly any feminist services. Besides our project on Vancouver Island there is one in the Kootenays, in Alberta, Regina, Thunder Bay, London, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and two in Quebec. KINESIS: What exactly do you do? DENISE: The national mandate was to basically add an extra staff person to existing women's services in communities — legitimize the need for more women's services, to show how they're vital. Women's services generally meaning things like transition houses, rape relief centres, women's centres etc. Our project was the only one where we had virtually no existing women's services. North of Nanaimo there are no women * s services so what we did was negotiate with some agencies to have a worker placed with them, but because they were in traditional agencies we formed a collective to be the base from which the worker operated out of as opposed to other projects in Canada where the women were already in a women's service which had a feminist direction. One of our workers in Campbell River was placed in the John Howard Society and was working with men so really needed support. That was one of the main reasons our collective became really tight because we needed that support and our job mandate was developed by the workers as a group. The worker who was working with existing women's services - our Nanaimo worker, for example, put a lot of energy into working with Rape Relief and Haven, which is a society for battered women. KINESIS: So what did the. women do once they were in the various groups? DENISE: Basically, in terms of jargon, we added to the delivery of the services to women. In fact what happened in Courtenay and Campbell River was a worker ended up doing a lot of outreach. In Courtenay -we counselled battered women. In Courtenay, Campbell River, and Port Hardy, where we have a volunteer worker, and in Port Alberni, where we have a Native woman working at the Friendship Centre, the worker became the person who the women in the community funnelled their requests to. Somebody in the community who specifically was there to respond to women's needs. The workers were totally.overwhelmed-for the first four months with requests for counselling, and battered women saying what do I do, where do I go? And we realized that we could not use all the workers ' time on this immediate crisis intervention and that we had to develop some long range strategy, to do something more effective. We got into outreach work and needs assessment so as to develop further programs. That's basically what happened in Courtenay, Campbell River and Port Alberni. In Port Hardy the worker helped start a women's centre which is now funded through the Secretary of State. In Port Alberni a very dynamic group of women have been working on trying to set up some alternative resources for battered women. They again got funded through Secretary of State. KINESIS: What were some of the programs or outreach work you set up? DENISE: Both in Courtenay and Campbell River we brought in women to do workshops, like self defence and rape relief forums. We did a women's film series, and public education workshops. We have a Violence . and Women Information Workshop which will be travelling throughout the whole island, into eight communities. KINESIS: Con you tell us a bit more about that? DENISE: Jude Angione is our worker in Victoria and works for Women Against Violence Against Women Subcommittee which is basically SWAG, Rape Relief and Transition House in Victoria — she has designed this travelling workshop and produced a video for it. With it also goes an information package and a pamphlet of resources for women on Vancouver Island. We spend a day in a community showing the video and doing a public education workshop on Violence Against Women. KINESIS: What else has your project init- ated or been involved with? DENISE: There's the volunteer buddy counselling network in Courtenay. Our funding runs out on March 31st and we're basically burnt out so we're not going to continue that but we've developed a very elaborate proposal for a women's self-help and advocacy network on the whole north island. We're going to Health and Welfare Canada for that money. We're hoping to use the experience of this year to develop a model for basically a three year community development scheme Any other feminists in Quesnel? I moved to Quesnel in late 1979 to work in the community law centre, and I have grown desperate for feminist companionship. Is there any way I can get in touch with such women in my area for the sharing of ideas, books, support, etc.? (No, the object is not matrimony!) I know there are lots of fine, strong women out there. I just have not managed to locate them. Jillian Smith, 18 - 612 Elm Street, Quesnel B.C. Daycare comes to the Yukon After years of lobbying by the Yukon Status of Women Council and the Yukon Child Care Association, the Yukon Conservative government has introduced the Day Care Ordinance, Bill 15. This ordinance comes into effect this May. Its purpose is to create a Board and establish a licensing system for facilities providing day care services for children under the age of six years. The Yukon Status of Women Council points out that Bill 15 talks about day care, not childcare. Twenty-four hour childcare is essential for women to have equal access to employment opportunities," the Council stresses. Furthermore, the Bill makes no allowances for funding for the centres themselves. "Bill 15 will make childcare available for those who can afford it, not those who need it," the Council adds. "This ordinance places most of its emphasis on the mechanics of the Board, not the welfare of children." 0. Optimist Prince George daycare study excludes WERA women Prince George City Council has formed a Task Force on Day Care. Although members of the Women's Equal Rights Association (WERA) has expressed interest in representation on the Task Force, no WERA members were appointed. Nor was any woman with children of childcare age appointed. NAC for rural women. From our experience in the last year where we did community organizing workshops and skills workshops, we saw from the impact it had in Courtenay, Campbell River and Port Alberni that it could possibly be developed into a more sophisticated model where we could go into rural communities. We could train people and provide them with skills to help them develop alternative resources in their own community — providing them with information on funding, how to work within the system, how to develop alternative resources — it could be a mini-bus service or a mother and tot drop-in, more recreation facilities or a women's centre or a transition house. So that's the scheme we're working on. We see the logical consequence to the work we've done that if any more outreach work is going to be done in this area we should be getting into more preventative strategies, rather than concentrating on this crisis intervention which is so band-aid and so ineffectual, in communities where there are no resources for women to turn to and no support systems. We have to help women to develop their support systems and do some sort of preventative work so that they might not reach that crisis situation. KINESIS: What are some of the differences between a project like this in a city and the same project happening in a rural area', DENISE: We certainly downplay the word 'feminist'. The farther north on the Island you go and the more single industry resource towns there are (which are basically male-dominated and created for men) there's a real fear of feminism and 'women's lib' as it's called. In Port Hardy it's been very hard to even get the women's resource centre going because there's a lot of very threatened men in these towns. You have to work very delicately You have to work very delicately and the issues which women find important are not issues women in cities might find important. IvSaybe they want more take-a-break sessions at the local skating rink, with childcare. The thing is childcare facilities are not good in any of these communities so that's really a major need. KINESIS: Who are the women working on the project? DENISE: There are eight women who come to our collective meeting. Meetings are once a month and they rotate from community to community. Jude Angione works in Victoria Annabel Cammeron works in Nanaimo for Haven and Rape Relief, Lee Jessiman works in Courtenay for Mental Health and the Ministry of Human Resources, Jean Kotcher works in Campbell River at the John Howard Society, Judy Joseph works in Port Alberni at the Friendship Centre, Carla Stein is a volunteer working in Port Hardy with the women's centre, and Sandy Kennedy and myself work out of the Courtenay office. We have had what we called a small 'c' collective which was the women from the north island who met twice a month and worked much more tightly and from our work came the Women's self-help and Advocacy proposal. We had a lot of problems with the structure of the program as it was set up by the Canada Employment and Immigration Centres (CEIC). KINESIS: I thought the project was funded by the Secretary of State ? DENISE: No. This program was funded by CEIC Youth Corp but is sponsored by the Secretary of State Women's Program — they asked CEIC for the money. On Vancouver Island we got the age limit lifted because we said we wanted to reintegrate women into the workforce. Q ACROSS CANADA Appraising Feminist Visions of the Future By Jan Lancaster The National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), is a Toronto-based, voluntary feminist organization comprised of more than 140 affiliated women's groups across Canada. Its principle aim is to improve the position of Canadian women. NAC developed out of the Committee for the Equality of Women in Canada, which was instrumental in having the Royal Commission on the Status of Women established in .1968. Since its founding NAC has grown steadily, both in numbers and in the range of issues covered. "The most powerful lobby for women in Canada," NAC formulates policy positions and presents briefs to the government. It takes women's concerns to the public through special forums and the Status of Women News magazine. It also promotes the building of a national network of women's, organizations. Vancouver Status of Women has been a member of NAC for several years. I was the delegate from VSW to this year's annual weekend long conference of NAC, which was entitled Feminist Visions of the Future: The Family. There were two keynote speakers. Rosemary Brown, NDP MLA from B.C> was extremely well-received, and gave a& overview of the practically non-existent rfuclear family. Mary O'Brien, Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education took as her topic, "The Personal is Political". She was excellent, amusing and informative. There were three workshops on Saturday morning covering the following topics: Reconceptions of Reproduction: Bearing and Raising Children, Women's Control of their Bodies, Societal Supports, Alternative Life Styles and Changing Sex Roles: androgyny, sexual stereotypes, sexual orientation; Perspectives on Domestic Labour: economic approaches to the values of women's work, exploitation of domestics, "wages for housework". These were followed in the afternoon by: Economic Penalties of Parenting: unemployment insurance, pensions, occupational health and safety, sexual harassment, job retraining and counselling; Creative Marital Breakdown: divorce, property, support, provincial responsibility, violence in the family, societal supports; and finally, Women and Aging: pensions, health care and support services. My major criticisms of the NAC conference stem from the above mentioned workshops — they were too broad in scope. There was an insufficient number of workshops, which meant that there were at least 100 women in each workshop — far too many for discussion and decent, well- developed resolutions for presentation to plenary. I felt let down. I didn't work hard enough, it was all too pleasant and low key. I experienced a sense of deja vu, I have been through all this before ~ years ago, in BCFW. I was left wondering, why are these people still discussing it? While the title of the conference referred to feminist visions, we were still passing resolutions on subjects of the mid- seventies : affirmative action^ for example (it doesn't work). In terms of human rights, resolutions supporting the elimination of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation were passed. On Monday, NAC presented them personally to the Human Rights Commission. Three strong resolutions were passed concerning Indian rights for Indian women. As a group, the Indian women were the most political and the most prepared. Subsequently they were able to get some positive resolutions passed. There is no doubt, and the amount of media coverage the conference received confirms this, that NAC is the strongest feminist lobby. But the B.C. women's movement was noticeably absent — only four B.C. groups were present. Why? It's a well-worn topic by now, I know. But it is one, I feel, which should be reviewed periodically. Should we become involved and make our presence felt at next year's conference? Is political lobbying at the federal level still valid and important? What, if anything, can we achieve through NAC? Would the time and energy be worth it? Let's discuss it again. 0_ This year, persons head up household hierarchies Statistics Canada has changed its "head of household" designations for the census conducted every five years. The change is a result of charges of sexism by feminists during the 1971 and 1976 censuses, where men were automatically assumed to be the "head of the household". Now Canadians will be asked to choose "Person 1" in their home. That person will be asked to answer questions about her or his relationship to the other residents in the home, who will become "Person 2", "Person 3" etc. Well, that change only took us ten years. On to the next... Q Vancouver Sun info. should be judged according to what the community will tolerate, morality and decency should be judged according to "contemporary Canadian community standards", a stricter definition. Toronto Clarion Domestics intercede for their rights INTERCEDE, (international Coalition to End Domestics' Exploitation) is lobbying in the Ontario legislature to improve the working conditions of domestic workers. Composed of a coalition of women from Employment Services for Immigrant Women, Housewives' Initiative and the Wages for Housework Committee, Intercede says that it is fighting to ensure that a bill bringing domestic work under minimum wage legislation will be passed when introduced in the Ontario legislature this year. Q Body Politic acquittal overturned; new trial ordered Body Politic's publishers, Pink Triangle Press, have had their earlier acquittal overturned and a new trial ordered. Charges were originally laid because of an article on sexual relations bewteen men and boys in the December 1977 issue of the Body Politic. Last fall Judge Sydney Harris acquiited them on charges of using the mails to transmit "indecent, immoral and scurrilous" material. The new decision made by Judge George Ferguson on February 29 states that Harris had made "errors of law". Ferguson's new ruling says that while obscene material Winnipeg unable to host bi- national lesbian conference At last year's Bi-National Lesbian Conference it was proposed that Winnipeg hold the 1980 conference. A collective of Winnipeg women officially accepted this offer in September. Unfortunately, we feel that at this point, we are unable to fulfill our committment. During our organizational meetings it became apparent that the majority of the collective felt we had neither the woman power nor the financial resources to hold a conference in 1980. We now feel that our energies would best be spent in local and regional organizing so that we will have the resources to hold a conference in the future. We are sending this letter to as many women's groups in Canada as possible. Hopefully there will be enough time for another city to organize a conference this year. We would like to thank all of the women, especially those in Saskatoon, who had supported our efforts to organize the conference . We apologize for having taken this long in reaching our decision. And we sincerely hope that another group will be able to hold the 1980 conference. Lesbian Conference Planning Committee Winnipeg (J)$ Women fight for jobs at aircraft plant A defense committee has been formed to defend the right of three women, Suzanne Chabot, Katy LeRougetel and Wendy Stevenson, to jobs at the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft plant in Longueuil, Quebec. These three women were "laid off" from the plant on November 16, 1979, several days before the end of their probationary period. These "layoffs due to a personnel surplus" occured at the same time as the company is undergoing an unprecedented expansion. More than 800 new workers have been hired over the past period. In information sessions for new employees the management of Pratt and Whitney even affirmed that they project hiring another several hundred workers in the months to come and that, with the contracts already signed or foreseen by the company, these jobs are stable until at least 1984-85. Women constitute a very small proportion of the work force in the Pratt and Whitney plants. Moreover, women are relegated to the work seen as "light" or "delicate" — in other words, the least interesting and the least well-paid jobs. Almost no women work on the assembly line or as machinists, operators or inspectors in the machine shop, etc., even if they have the required qualifications. The company admitted to these three workers that their work reports were excellent. When the women raised the fact that there was massive hiring in departments other than their own, management, replied that women couldn't fill these positions because they were "men's jobs." Local 510 of the United Workers (UAW) has submitted a brief to the Quebec Human Rights Commission charging the company with political discrimination against these three women. This brief has been endorsed by the Quebec Human Rights League. Q Kinesis April SO INTERNATIONAL France goes pro-natalist. But why? FRANCE—The French government, concerned over a steady decline in the country's population, recently announced measures to encourage production of larger families. Among the proposed programs are a government grant of $2500 for the birth of the third and each succeeding child, and an increase in existing family allotments, either directly or through tax relief, at the rate of 3% per year for families with three or more children. This is more than double the amount granted to smaller families. If the proposals are adopted, maternity leave for working mothers will be increased to six months from four for the third and succeeding children, and all mothers of three or more children will be eligible for government pensions covering the years spent raising their families. Finally, families having three or more children will be eligible to move to larger quarters in government-supported housing during the first six months after the child's birth. If they choose to buy or build a house, they can apply for a grant of up to 100$ of the downpayment. These proposals generated little enthusiasm in the French National Assembly. According to one delegate, "This is nothing but a cynical attempt to appease the anti-abortion forces in government on the eve of the upcoming abortion debate." (The debate over whether to renew, reject, or revamp the abortion laws.) If abortions remain accessible or become more accessible, the new pro-baby proposals may represent real progress in social valuation of childbearing and childrearing. However, the governments of France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, among others, are motivated more by distress over population decline, falling tax base, and shrinking workforce than by concern over justice for women. These new proposals, if coupled with greater restrictions on abortion, will constitute a great step backward in the struggle against biological determinism. 0 00B UN women's conference coming up in Copenhagen On July 14-30, 1980, the United Nations World Conference on the Decade of Women will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Representatives of governments, specialized agencies and organizations of the United Nations and inter-governmental organizations will assess the progress made and the obstacles encountered in carrying out the World Plan of Actiop adopted at the International Women's Year Conference held in Mexico in 1975. The agenda calls for a discussion of a specific action-oriented program for women, with special emphasis on the areas of employment, health, and education. Delegates will also examine and make recommendations on the conditions of women in South Africa, the question of Palistinian women and the situation of women refugees the world over. The official Canadian delegation will be selected by the federal government. For more information about the conference, contact the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 3rd floor, 63 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 1C3. A parallel conference will also be held in Copenhagen for non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This one's being organized by the NGO Committee in New York. For details, write to the Information Officer, DESI/DPI, Room 1061-1, 1980 World Conference for Women, United Nations Secretariat New York, NY 10017. Concurrently with the UN conference, the First International Festival of Women Artists will be held in Copenhagen at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. The Festival will include a program of readings, performances, panel discussions, films and art exhibits. Books and other literature will be on display. A women's publisher in Denmark called Kvindetryk has sent us the following details about how they will be participating in the festival. "In the Glyptotek we are going to hold an exhibition of material gathered from women's publishers around the world; for example, posters, photographs, post-cards, pamphlets, examples of books published — and women to read from these works. "We are inviting publishers to the exhibition, and to a seminar where women involved in publishing can exchange experiences, discuss ideas, and come to know of the work going on in other countries. "Even if you cannot attend, we invite you Italian feminists protest rape verdict FLORENCE, ITALY—After a relatively long period of silence and lack of street protest, Italian feminists have again crowded the piazzas of Florence. The occasion was another rape case being tried. The victim, Annalia, was only 15-years-old at the time of the rape. The rapist, Francesco Poddi, a policeman, father of two small children, and a "loving husband" as family and friends described him, is, accused of having raped Annalia on January 28, 1977. Three years were needed to finally try the case and to reach a verdict (you guessed it!!) of innocent. The following official statement was released to the press by the Italian Feminist Movement: "Not only are Italian laws useless and discriminatory when it comes to woman abuse, but they are also and always used against us. However, let it be known ERA, themes for March 8 in U.S. Here the New York march gets under way to send anything which you would like exhibited in the Glyptotek, so that the display can be as comprehensive as possible. All materials should reach us by May 1, 1980. "If you would like the material returned, you should state this when sending it. Otherwise we would like to keep it so that we can begin to build up an international archive of women's publishing." The festival will culminate in a procession symbolizing peace and solidarity among women world wide. Send your movement artifacts to: Kvindetryk, Vesterbrogade 31, tv, 11, 1620 Copenhagen V, Denmark. Q once again that rape is merely the most obvious form of violence; it is the form which most readily stands out but it is not the only form. We are subject to violence day in and day out. Our entire existences are marked by violence." 0 New Woman Times New York sexual harassment centre opens A National Sexual Harassment Legal Backup Centre has been formed, with headquarters in New York City, to assist women in combatting on-the-job sexual harassment by supervisors. The centre will prepare friend of the court briefs, assist lawyers handling sex harassment cases and seek to extend legal protection against harassment. The centre can also refer women to local lawyers specializing in such cases. The centre is an outgrowth of the Working Women's Institute, which does research and lobbying on working women's issues. Both are located at: 593 Park Ave., New York, N.Y., 10021; tel: 212-838-4420. 0_ Guardian Women are racing ahead As the crowd rose to its feet and roared support, 21-year-old Mary Decker streaked ahead to win the 1500-meter run at New York's annual Wanamaker Milrose Games. Her record-breaking time of four minutes eight seconds had the Madison Square Gardens crowd in a frenzy. Decker's speed was remarkable because sports record-keepers have assumed that women runners will never be able to make the legendary 4-minute mile. By running 1500 meters (slightly under a mile), around a difficult track with numerous tight bends, Decker proved that women will soon begin to match men's track records. Decker is making a comeback after leg surgery. o_ Guardian Patriarchal logic Along with "Nuke Iran" and other slogans of hate carried by U.S. protesters against the Ayatollah, there was this bit of logic: "Rape an Iranian Woman". Q Ms., March '80 INTERNATIONAL Southern Exposure/LNS The happy fetus is the wanted fetus BERKELEY, CA (HER SAY)—A pregnant woman's attitude towards her pregnancy can affect the health of her unborn child, according to Doctors Virginia Lauaean and Bea J. VanDenberg of the University of California at Berkeley. The researchers studied more than 8,000 pregnant women who received the same basic care during pregnancy. They found that among women who did not want to be pregnant but didn't have abortions, there was a significantly higher -risk to the fetus and the newborn child. The researchers said that for women with negative attitudes about pregnancy, the death rate of fetuses was about 60 per 1,000 pregnancies. The death rate for newborns of women who resented their pregnancies was about 28 per 1,000. For women who were happy about their pregnancies, however, the death rate of newborns was only 11 per 1,000 births. Q New Woman Times Indian feminist magazine published in Delhi Manushi is a bi-monthly feminist magazine published in Delhi, India, by a collective of Indian women. The third issue, in Hindu and English editions, contains features, interviews and fiction and poetry. It reports on women prisoners, protests women have organized against the dowry system and women's role in the peasant movement of the '40's. Manushi can be obtained from Manushi Trust, A-5 Nizamuddin East, New Delhi, India, 1100013- Write for rates. Q Bay Area women's building is now one year old The Bay Area Women's Building is one year old this May. Formerly, this four-storey stucco building was a little-used men's lodge hall. It took two years of intensive fund-raising by hundreds of women to buy and open the building. San Francisco Women's Centres, an umbrella organization representing 30 women's groups bought the building. Rental income covers only half of the monthly expenses, so the rest has to come from grants, donations and benefits. Fifteen different women's groups are now permanently housed in the building. The building also has a women's library, an excellent, up-to-date referral switchboard, and a drop-in room with job and housing listings. Performance areas are booked solid with classes in self-defense, theatre arts and other forms of entertainment. As the building enters its second year, there is talk of an art gallery and coffeehouse. The San Francisco Women's Building is located at 3543 18th Street, S.F. (Marilynn Woodsea/Ms info) Margo St. James advocates anti-draft tax revolt Margo St.James, founder of COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), recently called upon .women to refuse the draft and to refuse to pay taxes until passage of the ERA. She explains: "I'm advocating a tax revolt by all women interested in stopping the war machine before it stops us. So-called patriotism kills our children. Let those old farts go out there and fight it out themselves...." Q " m. + New Woman Times The Ties That Bind Real "Norma Rae" continues struggle against J.P. Stevens NORTH CAROLINA—Labour organizer Crystal Lee Sutton, otherwise known as "Norma Rae" in the film of that name which portrayed Sutton's struggles against the J.P. Stevens Company, says working conditions at the giant textile company's many plants are no better than they were in the 1930s. Sutton, a labour organizer for the Almaga- mated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, •is currently on a U.S. nationwide speaking tour in support of the J.P. Stevens boycott She says she ended her self-imposed retirement from the labour spotlight several months ago as a result- of what she says was an inaccurate media portrayal of her efforts to gain rights for textile workers at J.P. Stevens plants in North Carolina. Sutton was blacklisted from holding mill jobs in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, after being fired from J.P. Stevens in 1973 for her union organizing activities. She said that five years after her activities won Stevens the right to union representation, J.P. Stevens has still not signed a contract with its workers. Stevens has been cited in 18 separate National Labour Relations Board decisions for unfair labour practices since 1963 and fined over $1.5 million. Sutton reasons, however that with 1978 assets of $995 million it's cheaper for Stevens to break the law than to comply with a contract for its workers. Sutton says that although Twentieth Century Fox made Norma Rae against her wishes it is one of the best union movies ever made. She adds that for the film to have had more meaning for the labour movement, it should have showed the fact that the union is still trying to get a contract with J.P. Stevens. She adds that the movie also neglected to show the effects of brown lung disease among J.P. Stevens workers exposed to cotton dust in the textile mills. Sutton says today in J.P. Stevens mills "People lose their jobs, work long hours and don't even get a lunch break. They get hurt on the job, lose an arm or a leg for life and then the company's through with them." She said, for example her aunt worked in a mill for 49 years and received retirement benefits of only $3,000, amounting to a $27 a month check. Says Sutton, "So many people think this is. something out of the 1930s, but this is happening in the South today." Sutton, by the way, hasn't received so much as a cent from the book based on her work, and the film adapted from it. Negotiations are in the works for her to receive $25,000 from Twentieth Century Fox. She is currently working on a sequel to Norma Rae with Barbara Kopple, whose documentary "Harlan County U.S.A." was magnificent. 9 New Woman Tvmes Her Say The cervical cap—could it be an alternative? There?s good news and bad news about the cervical cap, a birth control method that the U.S. National Women's Health Network has been encouraging for the last several years. The cap is a cup-like rubber device, similar to but much smaller than the diaphragm, that fits over the cervix. Its advocates say it is easier to use than the diaphragm, does not become dislodged during sex, can remain inside longer, is much safer than the pill or IUD, and quite cheap. More than 100 women's health centres reportedly prescribe the cap, which they import from England and other European countries, since its manufacture in the US stopped with the advent of the pill. The bad news, according to cap advocators, is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has decided to reclassify the device, making it illegal to use as a contraceptive. The good news is that the FDA will no longer confiscate cap shipments from Britain and the Centre for Population Research will make funds available to test the cap's effectiveness, which means that clinics can continue to prescribe the cap if they apply for federal funds to test the cap's effectiveness. In Canada, Women Healthsharing, a Toronto feminist group, is trying to find out more about cervical caps in this country. Anyone who has fitted caps, been fitted for a cap or unsuccessfully tried to obtain a cap is invited to write to Madeline Boscoe and Connie Clement, c/o Women Healthsharing Box 230, Station "M", Toronto, Ontario M6S 4T3. £ Off Our Backs Our person who art non-sexist The British Council of Churches is now urging its flock to address their prayers to "parent god" rather than "our father.." In a book of prayers and hymns just published by the council, there are prayers for sexual equality: * Give us a vision of equality which transcends that of human lawmakers * Free us from prejudices about the roles of the sexes. n FNS CHILDREN AND THE LAW Shades of "The Scarlet Letter" How the law preserves archaic stigma of illegitimacy By Monica Loewi I am an unwed mother. Fifteen or twenty years ago, that confession would have caused me to suffer embarassment and shame. Today, my foremost emotion is anger. I feel rage and resentment born from the frustration of being held solely responsible for a circumstance which I did not create alone. I feel outrage because my innocent child must experience consequences of this circumstance. I was under the impression that laws and social mores had eliminated the stigma of illegitimacy. My experience has proved that the former, particularly, discriminates still against children (and their female parents) who are the issue of unions not legitimized by the institution of marriage. Legally, our rights have been indelibly stamped by the Scarlet Letter. My son was born in 1972. I didn't attempt to seek support for him until the end of 1978. My ignorance of the law caused me to forfeit his legal right to support from his father. In retrospect, I believe I had very valid reasons for delaying so long: I had a difficult labour ending in a Cesarean Section with complications; my son was an extremely active baby and young child; I was concerned exclusively with finding ways for us to subsist on minimum funds; I had been contacted several times by the father of my child — enough to stimulate some hope of future support; I was afraid that, if I took legal steps, his father would deny paternity and, worse, that he would harm us in some way. It wasn't until my child was older and more settled and I had regained some energy and courage; I had a steady (if not very lucrative) job; I was reinforced by the growing feminist climate; and I heard of a new genetic tissue-typing test of pater- • nity (Histo Compatibility Locus) which was deemed to be 99$ effective that I mustered enough strength and confidence to fight. I was also fortunate (not having enough funds to go into combat with a man of power and means) in obtaining some help from an old friend who is a lawyer and was willing to take the case on a contingency basis. 1979 was called the Year of the Child. I thought this was an appropriate time for me to invest my energies in the pursuit of rights for my child. During my investigations I became aware that, to a large , extent, the impressive title was another example of public relations hype. The "child" made a poignant subject for stories, photographs and good intentions but was rarely a considered individual when rights were vested. If I refused or were unable to look after my child, he would receive assistance (financial and/or legal) from the government; since I choose to care for him myself, his rights are limited by the law. The laws (as my lawyer helpfully reminded me) are made by men, for men The laws in British Columbia (and indeed in most places) do not recognize my reasons for postponing action as sound. The laws (as my lawyer helpfully reminded me) are "made by men for men." We have two acts which could cover maintenance and support of a child born out of wedlock. The first is the Children of Unmarried Parents Act. Under this Act there is a time limitation for making a complaint of one year after the birth of the child; or within one year after any act on the part of the father (such as giving money for the sole purpose of supporting the child or declaring his paternity in writing) which shows that he acknowledges he is the father; or within one year after the father returns to the province if he has been absent ("Don't hold your breath!" ) After the expiration of the period of limitation, the child is no longer protected by this Act; but the "punative" father is protected — he is no longer considered responsible for the existence of the child. The second law which could govern a plea for support for a child of unmarried parents is the new Family Relations Act. It seemed to recognize that the child has the right to the support of both parents, whether or not they were legitimized by marriage. It states that, "Each parent of a child is responsible and liable for the reasonable and necessary support and maintenance of the child..." (Part 4, Maintenance and Support Obligations) On further scrutiny, however, I discovered that the Act contains a definition of "parent" which includes "the father of the child, where the father and mother are not married to each other" only when he "contributes to the support and maintenance of a child for not less than 1 year". (Part I, Interpretation and Jurisdiction) It has been pointed out to me that the preceding interpretation keeps such a father from later asserting rights of custody because he has never provided support. I would suggest that this eventuality could be taken carenof as an interpretation under the Part called "Child Custody, Access and Guardianship" (Part 2) and need not be a blanket definition for the entire Act. As it stands I read the Act as saying that the mother of the child (unless she chooses to give up the child for adoption), because she gives birth to the child and is "guardian of the person" of her child, must take the sole responsibility for having conceived and created the child. and which waives limitations of time to seek such support until the child has reached the age of majority. The State of California has an act called the Uniform Parentage Act. It states that, "The parent and child relationship extends equally to every child and to every parent regardless of the marital status of the parents." (Section 7002). Unfortunately, for me (and I am sure for most single mothers), it is impossible to find the means to move to California to establish residency and secure my child's rights. I had an extended (ten years) relationship with the father of my child. That fact had comforted me and reinforced my conviction that I should seek financial help for the support of our son. When I re-examine the situation objectively, however, I realize that the interests of the child are of paramount consideration and that the length of relationship between parents should not be an issue. Why is there still a double standard? The law protecting children who are a result of married unions states that they must be cared for to the best of the abilities of each of the parents. Why is there still a double standard for children who are born out of wedlock? Why is the father of a child not considered equally responsible for some of the burden of support if he is not married to the ' mother? It is mandatory that we look more closely at our laws and ensure that the rights of children (and consequently women) are uniformly protected. I have told the-story of my attempts to gain support for my child to several The same Act puts no such limitations on the rights to support and maintenance of a child with married parents. In that case the father, even if he does not support the child for the one year minimum, is legally responsible for the sharing of protecting the welfare of his child. Further, the Act does not prohibit a father who is the "guardian of the person" of his child from seeking legal action for support from the mother even if she has not supported the child for a minimum of one. year. I did find one place which seems to consider that a child has the right to support from both parents, married or not, Sylvie Beauregard people: lawyers, friends, and acquaintances and the'Minister of Human Resources. Although I have received a measure of sympathy and understanding, I have not yet found a person or people who are able to assist in making changes to our laws. It is important for me to contact those who are concerned with the inequities of our present laws dealing with child support and maintenance and who are determined to effect modifications. If you have any suggestions or are interested in joining forces, please call me, Monica Loewi, at home 988-1813, or write or call the Vancouver Status of Women, 1090 W. 7th Ave., Vancouver, V6H 1B3 736-1313. 0 LOCAL MOVEMENT Vancouver feminists celebrated our International Women's Day "ZlNDAfilD! WAN, MM "**V :■%/**. Signs translate as "the struggle continues." In memory of Nashter Dhahan By Kinesis staff writers Our bodies, ourselves. That was the theme for Vancouver celebrations of International Women's Day, March 8. Why March 8? In 1908, working women in New York marched under banners demanding equal pay, childcare, the right to vote and an end to sweatshop conditions. Since that time, women all over the world have used March 8 to have their voices heard. This year in Vancouver, we vocalized our demands for control by women of our bodies, ourselves and our world. In a march and rally, and in a day of outreach in local libraries and shopping malls, we called for: * the right to birth control and abortion * the right to freedom from all forms of violence, including sexual harassment and 'rape the right to end male-defined, male- controlled images of women in all forms of media * the right of women to free ourselves from nuclear technology and manipulation by the medical industry The ad hoc International Women's Day committee not only coordinated the day of outreach, but also produced a broadsheet detailing the services provided by the local women's movement. This broadsheet, along with informational pamphlets from each of the local women's group, was handed out in shopping malls, libraries, and on street corners on outreach day, March 1. At the Oakridge Mall, the outreach happily coincided with a protest organized against Human Resources Week by the Welfare Action Coalition. More than 800 people took part in the march and rally on March 8 : virtually every women's group in Vancouver was represented, our numerous banners making a colourful display on the courthouse steps. In addition to these events, we partied twice, with an all-women celebration March 8 and a mixed benefit March 1. From these the IWD committee was able to raise funds to cover costs. March 8 committee to continue The IWD committee has decided to maintain itself as an on-going group, meeting throughout the year. Next meeting is Wednesday, April 23, 7.30 p.m. at Britannia Community Centre, room L5. The rally following the march was a mixture of songs and speeches. Ferron, Carol Street, the Song Spinsters, and the Euphoniously Feminist Non-performing Quintet Plus One were among groups sharing song and celebration. Speakers included Kathy Hunt, of the Welfare Action Coalition, and VSW's Debra Lewis. Hunt spoke of the myths that go around about people on welfare, and contrasted them with the reality of being a single mother, trying to make ends meet well below the poverty line. Lewis described to the rally how Aid. Gerard has refused to support city funding for VSW's legal advocate'on the grounds that we are pro-choice on abortion and sexual orientation. Among other speakers was Ulrika Weissger- ber of SORWUC, who related the theme of March 8 to the struggle to organize the unorganized, particularly clerical workers. Danyele Leroux spoke of women's reality in Quebec, while Yvette Perreault, of the B.C. Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres gave an overview of how far we've come and how far we've yet to go. Kinesis celebrates March 8 by re-printing excerpts from those two speeches. ► INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY Danyele Leroux describes Quebecoise experience Danyele Leroux spoke to the rally about the experience of women in Quebec. "The church, patriarchy, the capitalist system and the anglophone corporation have united in Quebec to create and perpetuate for us, women, a climate of repression. We are conditioned to be passive housekeepers, servants and baby-makers. We suffocate in extreme authoritarian families where we are subordinated to male dominance and power...we struggle constantly for our rights as francophones, receiving inadequate support from other women all across Canada... The referendum "We are facing a very confusing dilemma in Quebec right now. The upcoming referendum. On the one hand, a "no" vote will be seen as a lack of support in Quebec for independence by corporate and federal government interests in English Canada and by many anglophones. Why? Because the referendum has been seen for so long as representing the anger of Quebecois people against their oppression within this country. A defeat for Quebec, consequently, will be seen as a victory for federalism, a loss of credibility. A more repressive government and greater assimilation will come. "On the other hand, a "yes" vote is also a problem inside Quebec. It would be interpreted by federalism and all the other provinces -as a rise of Quebec as a nation, a strong united force. But within Quebec i{ would mean a vote for the P.Q. as a party. The P.Q. represents more autonomy, but not real independence. In addition, the P.Q. was voted in by militants, women, unionists, working class people. It represented the sentiment, it meant our pride. It made many promises but hasn't kept them. It has refused women's rights to abortion, it has closed rape relief centres and it doesn't want to finance daycare.... "Whatever Quebecois people decide, English Canadians must, above all, support our right to determine our own future. Even if the referendum fails, the struggle for national rights will continue. "You should not think that the media, the corporations, your government, with their anti-Quebec slogans and petitions are coming from a place of sorrow and sadness about the eventuality of loosing Quebec as a province or a culture. They are only interested in their own economic investments By putting pressure on us by denying our language rights, by pulling out of Quebec with their industries and their banks, they are doing all they can to intimidate us. "Those corporations, media and governments are the same people who refuse you, the women of B.C., your abortion rights. They are the same people who say that lesbians are sick and perverted. They are the same people who tell us that pornography does not lead to rape... "If anglophones refuse support to women and people in Quebec, the anglophone communities will be standing beside the government and corporations that deny our rights as women, as feminists, as workers and as union members right across Canada. "We need you to organize protests, to send thousands of letters supporting our fight. We need you to take an active part in organizing a conference which will deal with the women's movement in Quebec and our struggle against national oppression. We need you to denounce corporation interests, to rally to our cause. We need you to examine how this bullshit about Quebec, this national chauvinism, has determined the values that you have internalized as being right. "Quebec has so much to offer as a movement, emerging and taking responsibility for itself. It is inspiring to us as women and as feminists who are also climbing towards recognition and validation." 0 March 8 pics Gillian Marie Sue Newman GaylaReid for just a few of US Welfare Action Coalition, addressing March 8 rally Yvette Perrault, of the B.C. Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, also spoke at the rally. "We have come together today", Perrault said, "to affirm our struggle, to celebrate and applaud our successes: Applauding our successes * we have developed an analysis of the oppression of women based on our own experience * we have learned that the personal is indeed political * we have established a number of feminist organizations and services to help ourselves and each other — transition houses, rape crisis centres, bookstores, a women's health collective, women's unions, self- defence courses, a women's press, women's films and videos, women's music and art, women's media, peer counselling groups, problem-solving groups... *: for many years we have secured government funding for our projects and services * there is a general acceptance of lesbians 'as an integral part of the women's movement. Lesbian resources now exist * we have created a province-wide network of feminist organizations. The British Columbia Federation of Women unites 48 member groups * the structure and perspective of the BCFW has been used in the formation of a national feminist network, the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres "We have developed a strong women's community which now offers many alternatives to an alienating, oppressive culture. "As the Women's Liberation Movement, we have protested and acted together on specific objectives that are meant to bring us closer to our goal of freedom: * we have fought for and won abortion (sort of? maybe?) * we have made changes in rape laws (but how does that stop rape?) * we now have women's studies programs in the schools * the public is more aware of women's oppression and there is a general acceptance of the women's liberation movement as credible and positive (is that true, generally?) * it is now "legal" to be a lesbian (as long as you're locked away in your own bedroom, as long as you don't want to be a mother, care for children, kiss another woman in public and are over 21) "So we've developed an analysis, built a community, a culture, learned to talk to each other, found some points of agreement, and we are beginning to learn to fight with each other and not have that destroy us. And we've made some noise out there... "But how far has that got us when we look back at our original goal, to be free? But how far have we come? "There are not many new faces here today — not many,older women, not many young women, not many women with different colour skins and not enough women whose language is other than English. * our wages are lower than ever when compared with men's salaries and the cost-of- living increases * women's groups are still dependent on government approval and funding * we are losing our right to abortion and only quietly protesting * we still don't have day care for our children * we are still bombarded with gross sexist advertising and pornography is becoming more violent * women are virtually being forced to dress in even more restrictive clothing: tight slit skirts and spike heels * the majority of women are still working in unfulfilling, boring, backbreaking jobs * Vancouver Status of Women loses its city funding because they support choice on abortion and gay rights #there are more and more women believing that making personal change is the same as politically significant work * Vancouver Rape Relief went through a long painful process when we realized that, basically, we were just patching up women and feeding them back into the system. We were protecting women from the strong feminist perspective that made such fundamental transformations in each of our lives. We spent a lot of our time working on law reforms and pressuring police and doctors to be a little bit kinder to "rape victims". We counselled a woman individually, all the while reassuring her that yes, indeed, there were hundreds of women out there just like her. It was hard to realize that we were perpetuating our own and other women's unfreedom. "And that's violence too. "Are we not continuing to be violent to ourselves when we keep women separated and divided from each other? When we don't tell women out there and here beside us all the truth? When we continue to define it as "us" and "them"? When our analysis tells us we need a new way, a new system, and we continue to fight for half the loaf? When we settle for reforms? "When we mimic and shore up the very institutions and services we are trying to break down? When we back down and don't speak out strongly against cutbacks in funding, in abortions, UIC, welfare, social services, because we're afraid we'll lose the approval of our funding sources or because we don't believe it matters? It's time to push forward again "We've spent ten years building this community, our alternatives. And we must not now work simply to perpetuate ourselves. This is the time to be a movement — to • push ourselves forward again. "And yes, there will be resistance and objections and penalties. "Governments don't fund revolutionary groups for long! And governments will not approve: * when we say we no longer believe in the criminal injustice system * when we say we no longer believe in health care for profit * when we say we no longer believe in an educational system that produces children who don't know how to think for themselves * when we say we no longer believe that lesbians, women on welfare, handicapped women, older women and children need to be scapegoated and punished. * when we say we no longer believe that different skin colours and different languages are barriers we can never cross * when we say we no longer believe in prison reform, but want to abolish prisons * when we say we no longer believe in wars and in the destruction of our earth * when we say we no longer want a piece of this decaying, dying, rotting system * when we say we don't want a safe community * when we'say we will not stop until we have our freedom! And we will not get that without more work — without thoroughly evaluating where we are now, as individuals, as groups, and as a movement "We must plan where we, as individuals, as groups, and as a movement want to be in five years, in ten years. We need visions. "We must remember that our goal is Transformation and that to end women's oppression means to struggle through the collective actions of a mass movement of women. "We must remember that being feminists necessarily means we are politically radical anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti- he terosexist, anti-imperialist. "We must create situations where women can move towards feminism and then be rapidly integrated into the women's liberation movement. We can miss no opportunity to get the message out — to raise women's consciousness by emphasizing the real life issues that most affect women — to motivate the woman at home,in the suburbs, at work in the factories, typing in the offices, caring for the children, studying in schools, watching TV, shopping... to motivate them to act. "Everyone needs some explanation of the world and where our lives and work fit in. If we don'.t supply the radical theory, women will absorb what is already there (liberalism, nature, religion) ."We need to go public as radical feminists, to share our knowledge and our analysis, to take pride in our politics, to respect women enough to tell them all the truth, to develop and pass on tools that women will find useful in their own hands so that they too can pass them on. Feminists are made, not born "It seems like it's time to settle in for the long haul in the '80s. Resources are scarcer, we are tired. Most of us are recognizing that we are all in a state of perpetual rape — and we know that to win our place as autonomous beings, will be, for us, a permanent battle. "But I don't want to huddle in my community. I don't want an individual solution. I don't want to be happy by being oblivious of your pain. "We can dare to take ourselves seriously. Join a group. If the group you're in is not meeting your needs or furthering the goal of ending oppression, speak up and change that. Dare to take a stance out of the ordinary. "All groups need support and encouragement. We all need the respect.that comes from being direct and honest with each other, constructively criticizing and appreciating each other's politics and actions. We can't allow them to pick us off "We must join together, as groups, clearly define our basis of unity and begin to be accountable to each other. When VSW loses its city funding, it is all of our responsibility to be there and to demand a retraction of that decision. They must not be allowed to pick us off one by one! "We can create new alternatives to the system and act together to draw more and more women into the movement. We can share responsibility for our handicapped women, our older women, for our children. We can work with these women and children, not simply for them. "We can begin to address economic disparity and to share our incomes — among groups and individuals. "We can hear each other's ideas and learn to deal with the challenges raised by these ideas. We can dare to dream, to plan for our future, we can dare to live in new ways, taking risks and pushing ourselves one step further." 0_ Kinesis April 80 WOMEN AND WORK Five massage therapists enjoying their work with you In the second of our series of interviews with women who enjoy the work they do, Janet Beebe talks with five massage therapists who have begun to meet regularly for sharing and support. Their enthusiasm for their work was hard to contain at times; we hope that other women will be inspired by it. KINESIS: How did you each < started in PATRICIA (HONEY): I was taking physiotherapy because of a car accident. I thought I might become a physiotherapist, but when I looked at the science requirements, I knew I'd never qualify. So when I started to get massages, I asked my massage therapist about training. For •the duration of my treatments, she talked to me about going to school, which was the Canadian College of Massage. It takes absolutely nothing to get in there as long as xyou have the money and have graduated from high school. Fees have tripled since then, but at that time, it cost me $1075. I went to night school (there's only a day program now). It was three nights a week and I worked in the daytime. I also had a loan from the B.C. government. I loved school, it was great. I graduated in April 1978. It was one of the best things I've done in my life. I needed a goal and this was just perfect for me. It's not only that I love it, but I can expect to make a living at it. I was so high doing this — busy all day working, and going to school at night. I was totally thrilled with the idea. Before I went to massage school, I worked at Transition House, and before that at clerical jobs. I also worked at a beauty salon. I loved washing hair! That was my start in massage. PAULETTE: I was doing a lot of massages on friends, and I was getting good feedback. Then I took a course in psychic healing. At that point my father got sick with cancer, and it really drew me to natural healing. I saw massage as a way to get involved with that. I trained at 3H0 in Toronto, which now doesn't exist. It had a spiritual , intuitive approach to massage. It was an evening course, 12 hours a week for a year — it cost me $60 a month — and I worked during the day with the Women's Travelling Medicine Show. The Medicine Show was a collective of women who were teaching yoga, nutrition and massage to single mothers and women on low income. TRICIA: I got introduced to massage when I was at Mt. Baldi, a monastery just outside of Los Angeles. I have an old back injury which can be agonizing. I was in the middle of a retreat, and having this pain, so I told the head of the retreat that I was in trouble. Very coincidentally, a massage therapist tripped in mid-retreat and said if anyone was in any kind of trouble, she could do something for them. So she worked on my back, and I couldn't believe what happened. The change was dramatic; I had been in such incredible pain. I was so grateful. I didn't immediately go out of that thinking, I'm going to become a massage therapist. I went on with my life, in the mad circles it was going in, but eventually everything in my life just lined up — and massage is a natural part of that. Before, I had been working with retarded children at Woodlands. Working with retarded children was beautiful, but working at Woodlands was terrible. I was doing a job that I liked, but I kept on bumping into the institution. I was looking for something that I considered "right" work, where I could really give, and not be controlled or limited. So I really appreciate working on my own. I trained at the Canadian College, the same place that Patricia trained. I have very mixed feelings about Canadian College. I was sort of a political guerilla most of the year. I fought for a lot of changes. It was expensive — $2300 when I went, the year after Patricia did. It had become an 11-month day course by then. It was intense, it was like being in a sweat think- tank with 30 other people for 11 months. But I grew — my whole life changed. JACKIE: I got started by doing a day-long massage workshop at Simon Fraser Women's Centre. ?5y interest came from getting Rolfed. At that time, what it took to become a classic Rolfer was a lot more weight than I have. So I considered chiropractic and other ways of working with the body. I did the massage workshop so I could massage my friends I was going to school part-time and working part-time at the Health Collective, but I soon realized that I could do massage for a living. I went to the Canadian College at the same time as Tricia. We were sister guerillas. ANN: When I went into training, I didn't know whether I would practice when I came out. I had raised a family, but was really unhappy with the work I was doing. I'd been separated from my husband for a number of years, and I knew I wanted to make some very basic changes in my life. I decided to go out and learn a skill. The curriculum I'd seen at the Canadian College really interested me, but I was scared of going because I hadn't been in school for years. I'd raised children, and given birth, yet didn't really have a clue about my body, about physiology or anatomy. It was an incredibly intense year at'school. I was excited, but also appalled, by the amount of work we were doing. "When I came back to B.C., I failed the Boards the first time that I sat them. I sat them again and passed. I realized that I wanted to do this. I did not want to do anything else. The office work I had done before had been dull and routine, and I'd always been subject to someone else's authority. It's been a really exciting experience for me to be self-employed, having to make my own decisions, though I've also found that difficult. V.e're totally on our own. But there's also a tremendous challenge to that. I'm directly responsible to the people I work with, and I like that. JACKIE: I've felt that too. The lack of structure can be difficult. It might be easier if I were working with a group of therapists meeting, say twice a month, so I'd get feedback. KINESIS: Has that ever been done? JACKIE: What I would like is a supportive group with a loose structure, where there could be information sharing. Something like this group. KINESIS: What is this group? TRICIA: We haven't really defined ourselves yet. We're still talking about what we need as individuals. I need to be<. supported by other people doing the same kind of work I'm doing. PATRICIA: Paulette and I have developed a good relationship, and we give each other a lot of support. I'm really glad she's been around. We talk about general problems and frustrations much more than specifics. It's been tremendous. It would be nice to have that with more people. We met at one time with all the new therapists within the provincial association, but it didn't work. Most have the support of one or two people, and that seems to be enough.for them. ANN: We're part of a bigger association, the Association of Physiotherapists and Massage Practitioners of B.C. Physiotherapists comprise ten times the number of massage therapists, and within that group it's difficult for us to function. We are not an autonomous body. This makes a big difference in our relationship with the medical profession. PATRICIA: Massage therapy is only recently recognized, and still most doctors are not familiar with it. They don't see it as something to refer people for. Massage is covered by MSA, though. Each person is entitled to $75 for physio and/or massage a year. Use up your medical, you're paying for it. But also, it's the image of massage. There's still the body rub image. There needs to be more education and information about massage. I think that's happening now'because the profession is growing, and we're out there saying 'this is what massage is', as opposed to body rub. KINESIS: How many massage therapists are there in B.C. ? ANN: About 120. JACKIE: But the schools are growing rapidly. The only schools are in Ontario, but lots of people in the schools are from B.C. PATRICIA: There are two schools, the Canadian College of Massage, and Sutherland- Chan School of Massage. Sutherland-Chan is not accredited yet because it's quite new. KINESIS: What's the enrolment in the schools right now? JACKIE: There's 40 in this year's class, but not all of them will practice massage when they finish. Counting both schools, probably 100 a year. ANN: You know, we walk a fine line between being clinical therapists and holistic practitioners. In my practice, I work more than half the time with "clinical" cases, but there are a growing number of people who see massage as a means of having good health. TRICIA: Getting in touch with our bodies, I think that's the key. Many people take that very seriously, and massage is incredible for that. PATRICIA: It's a great preventative. I'm always asking people why they don't come for a massage, and they say "I don't feel quite that bad yet..." as if they have to be in pain! Most of my business comes from women in the (feminist) community. A few of us (massage therapists) have also started to exchange massages among ourselves . PAULETTE: It helps my work. I learn a lot from exchange massages. KINESIS: You're supposed to be relaxing! ANN: I find it's not as easy to give over WOMEN AND WORK to a massage now. I have a whole new perception of what's happening, and that's helpful, but it also gets in the way at times. JACKIE: That happened to me for a while, but even so, if I want to learn something from someone, I have to really pay attention, or it's gone. It makes me wonder how much people are hearing me. ANN: I don't like talking to people while I'm massaging them, because I can't give my full attention if I;m trying to communicate on a verbal level as well. I usually suggest that they ask me questions after- What I do find, though, is that I often notice things about people I'm massaging, and wonder if they want to hear about my observations. Things about breathing and posture that I feel could be improved if they were more aware of it. KINESIS: Are any of you connected with the Preventive Medicine Centre at 10th and Alma. PAULETTE: Three of us work out of there. KINESIS: My feeling is that a lot of people see massage as a luxury item, and I have tended to see massage as quite privatized — many massage therapists work in very isolated situations. So connections with other health workers would seem to be essential, if only to make massage more accessible and to change its image in ; minds. ANN: What I'm trying to do right now is build up connections with other people in the medical profession. I just made contact with a chiropractor. We would like to work together with people who need both our services. We feel that if we work side by side, we will each see much more happening. JACKIE: I think those connections are really important too. There's traditional western medicine and there's the holistic health approach, and it's really essential that the two begin to work together. There's no way it can go on as if they're " opposed. It doesn't make sense, and it doesn't work. People are suffering from ineffective health care, from one end of it or the other. It's important for me to work with people who are working from other models and to blend approaches, rather than to say, 'that's different from my approach, there- ' fore it's wrong'. TRICIA: I see taking a more eclectic, pre- . ventive approach to health care, where we don't just go east, or go west, and I see a big place for massage in that. Both east and west have something to offer. We need to understand better the kinds of problems we're faced with, and to tailor the health care we're offering in a more personal way. ANN: Massage is a way of putting people more in touch with themselves, and making them better able to deal with their own health needs. TRICIA: Massage does that wonderfully. You don't take the power. You're a resource person, giving people more information about themselves. They keep the power, so it's'not mystified. That's important. JACKIE: It's hard for some people to handle that one, too. You can give someone different approaches as to how they're going to start using their body differently One approach may be very gentle, another much more vigorous, and they can choose which feels like it would work for them. TRICIA: I often get people asking me very elaborate questions like "What did you find? What can you tell me about myself?" ANN: I spent a lot of time giving people very basic information, information I got when I went to massage school, that I hadn't had before. I didn't know it when I was in my late forties. JACKIE: I see part of my role as educational. If I spend two hours showing people pictures of how muscles work, how it could happen that they're in the condition they're ir, and what can be done — they're usually amazed. So education is really valuable. It's not just giving people intuitive consciousness, but giving them something really concrete to look at. KINESIS: What about your work patterns. Do you. find the pace comfortable? JACKIE: I'm still feeling that one out. I started practicing fairly recently, and I still don't have a full case load. ANN: This business of pacing oneself — I'm finding I have more energy than I thought I had, and I seem to be able to draw on more energy. But I have had to learn when to say no, which is not always easy. I have a full case load right now, and it is difficult. I do have a slight anxiety about what's going to happen two months from now when everyone feels so much better, and doesn't heed massage! KINESIS: Would you class your job as more, or less, stressful than the ordinary job? ANN: It's so different. I feel so much better doing it. I've got more energy because I feel good doing what I'm doing. I wouldn't have as much energy if I were doing it for someone else. KINESIS: What do you see in the future, for massage therapy, and for yourselves? ANN: Somebody told me it was the best profession I could have chosen, because I won't need to retire from it! I'd never Kujundzic thought about that, but I think it's absolutely true. I was at a convention of American massage therapists, and I couldn't get over the number of people there who were in their sixties and seventies. I was hard put to find anyone under thirty. And these people in their sixties and seventies were putting in incredible days that I wouldn't have thought of working. PAULETTE: I've been working as a massage therapist for four years now, and I think I'm going to stay. I feel a commitment not just to massage, though, but to natural healing. I feel I'll be doing that for the rest of my life. One thing about this work, it's always evolving. I feel as if I'll never get to where I want to be. JACKIE: whatever I do with massage, what I'm doing now will be with me, and will probably find use. I find it hard to say that in ten years I'll be doing massage, because four years ago I would not have said I'd be a massage therapist. TRICIA: I feel we're on the brink of a revolution where east does meet west, where we see bodywork appearing from a lot of different places. Essentially, there is no separation between the body, mind and spirit. I think what bodyworkers are saying is that our bodies are much more subject to the wonders and traumas of life than we've been led to believe in this western tradition. KINESIS: We've talked about massage being less mystified than traditional medicine, which I think we can safely assume. I'm interested in the connection bewteen you, who are trained massage therapists, and the people who see you and perhaps do massage informally because it feels good. What do you do to help people take their health care into their own hands? JACKIE: I was only in school for one year. Even though it was bombardment of information, it was only one year, and I haven't forgotten what I used to call my "legbone" So I don't have a hard time with the people who come to me. I know there are differences between me and people who haven't been to school. We probably have different approaches. Massage therapists use a medical model a lot of the time. But it is certainly possible to educate yourself. PAULETTE: I really encouragetpeople to help themselves. I often show people charts of their hands and feet, and teach them exercises or massage points that I have found work for specific things. TRICIA: I'd like to end by saying that making the decision to uproot your life to go all the way to Toronto is quite unbelievable, as is the first taste of school. Not only because you're heaped with work, as well as a language and terminology you're probably not familiar with, but also because as students, you put demands on yourselves and each other to learn and to grow. It's an acceleration year, a year where you're going 90 mph, as opposed to the 10 you might have been going before. But all that considered, having uprooted and having gone to Toronto, then coming back to Vancouver, to see if there's anybody still here you know — it's worth it. It's the most incredible kind of work that I've ever done. Q Details: Canadian School of Massage, P.O. Box 983, Sutton West, Ontario LOE 1R0; Sutherland-Chan School, 732 Spadina Ave, Toronto M5S 2T9 Foot-in-mouth disease appears chronic among commissioners The B.C. Human Rights Commission has been trying to behave itself. But foot-in- mouth disease struck again at the commission meeting March 4- At that meeting, the report from last December's human rights conference — sponsored by the commission, the Secretary of State and the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews — was released. Among the 108 recommendations contained in that report, one called for an increased representation by women on the commission. Oh yes, very important, very important, the commissioners muttered, eager to do right, for once. But commissioner Joseph Katz just couldn't resist it. In an attempt to sum up the discussion, Katz commented, "I would like to say we (commissioners) are all married"^ adding that the "distaff side" shared concerns raised at the meeting. "Only joking," said Katz after the meeting. Miriam Azrael, of the British Columbia Federation of Women, was at the commission meeting. "I objected to Katz' 'joke' because it is indicative of the commissioners habitual inability to take anything other than a trivializing approach to human rights. "My greatest point of frustration is that the media leapt upon this incident as if it were the only important thing to say about human rights. Representation of women on the commission is important; the human rights of prisoners is important. Stupid jokes are important. "Half of the commissioners' terms expire in August. It is to be hoped that the minister, at that time, takes the recommendation to appoint women seriously. Why should that suggestion be regarded as a joke?" 0_ OUR CHILDREN. OURSELVES An introduction to the learning collective How can we all learn best, and keep our power? All of us in the Learning Collective have contributed to this article. We've thought and talked about ourselves alot in the last couple of weeks, while one of us took on the job of presenting our stuff in written form. That person is me, Dorrie Nagler. I'm the "I" that turns up here and there. Otherwise the "we" speaks for us all. Our purpose with this article is to connect with more people in the community, to have a place, be known, recognized, grow. The questions we asked ourselves were: "What does this school mean for us in our lives?" and "How are we doing now?" Here we describe ourselves as a school, as a collective, and speak as people who've worked on this schooling process for a year or two. We hope to answer questions we hear frequently, and engage you further in the delights of learning with our younger friends and the satisfactions. Who are we? Eight children, twelve adults aged 5 to 35; childrens" ages range from 5 to 9 years. Some of us are parents, though not all, some are single parents, some work full time at paying jobs, almost half of us receive welfare, some children went to straight school, others not, some adults went to university — maybe half. Looking at our class background, again about half n' half working class/middle class; let's see: some of us call ourselves feminists, all of us work with a personal awareness of women's struggles. Some of us are heterosexual, some are gay. Three of us have vehicles. We want to make a statement about how we are represented in these groupings because we want to show that as a schooling group we are egalitarian; that there is nothing necessarily elitist about the collective, or what we are doing. This concerns us. We also make music, dance, are learning carpentry, quilt, weave, treeplant, farm, write, run tenaciously, make posters, photograph, are involved in other co-operatives, and feminist ventures, sing, co- counsel, mediate, and as ever — are involved with children. A long description to make the point but worth it. We like the way we are ... diverse, and together. What is going on now? We have reached, and passed many of our initial goals. September before last we were working in theory about being a collective, and the ways we should teach, the limits we might set. Now we are dealing in day-to-day practice, the details of our teaching/learning, which reader a child chooses, etc. All the children are reading, all are involved in math skill programs; none have been coerced, and yet all are clear that we consider those "access skills" important. We have learned to negotiate a balance with each child between waiting until that younger person is willing and prepared and telling them that the particular skill is essential because having it leads into effective action. Such as working within a group, making decisions together. Essential skills, that grow steadily, as we are ready, as we are encouraged, and, as examples are brought to our attention. So we've reached a place of specifics — we're doing it, we can see the details are significant: for example, the tones of voice. We get satisfaction in bringing our dreams into the world, putting them into motion, seeing how they will grow and change with use. In meetings we've learned to speak with our feelings, and ideas, to stay up front rather than back off when it's hard to connect with someone else's views. When I look through our minutes I know we're remarkable, and that what we're doing works when I see we've reached collective solutions for burnouts, car breakdowns, financial crises, scapegoating among the children... and we've been delighted to find risking was worth it: we have changed, are moved, are good for each other. Sense- able! We know more and more what we're doing, because we're doing it. We see the effects of what we do, and we share what we see. Meetings are pretty safe. This includes children — yahoo! They have just called a meeting to protest our arb-: itrary decision to cut out special treats. I get tears in my eyes when I hear my kids speak to the co-ordinator, and ask her to notify us of what they want. What goes on at the school? Arrivals — 9:30 getting ready, playing, etc. until 10:00, then group time: any hassles, news is brought forward, agreements are made ahout how people's toys shall be handled, etc., then each person tells Henry, any other adults, and the "Many small happenings are special to us, when a child speaks out and sees how effective it is; or disputes are handled independently and clearly, when two children persist in helping one another, do favours, hug, touch, when a child sees what is going on and asks for change — we get excited! Lately two little girls were commenting on how they were girl friends, and one went on to say, "And when we grow up we can be lovers." Yeah, we can be lovers...! Is there a teacher? Henry is our regular teacher, coming all four days of our school week. I come three days, other members come regularly, as theiri time allows — half days, full days. It's usual to have two adults available at any time. There is energy enough to do some skill sharing and/or planning between adults. Henry has had seven years teaching experi- Learning Collective other children what they plan to do with their day, and also how they want to do their reading and maths. The children ask for adult and/or child support if they need it, and the adults work it out with them. We call it contracting, exchanging, agreeing. Then 10:30ish reading activities and projects sort of rotate and work . into ll:30ish and math activities and projects, to 12:30 and lunch. The afternoon is spent focusing on our own stuff, and in finishing off any particular agreements we've set up. The children have been building boats; three masters, tugs, fishing boats, and building houses and farms which are growing into villages. Murals are gradually fleshed out. Through all this we share stories, dress up, climb the mountains of earth outside, listen to records, tapes, talk, build worlds in the sand-table, wrestle, tickle, snuggle, type, write letters, make clay caves. Many times there is a child sitting, telling herself a story, or gazing into the mirror, singing. Fantasy remains big where we leave space open for it; it doesn't go once kids start to read. All this time we're sharing the space and working all that through. Around 3:00 p.m. we come together again, check out our feelings, settle unfinished business, choose what we're going to clean up...and do it, and then go outside: finito. "Seeing all this reaffirms my belief that people can be self starters, can go on to completion ..." ence which has helped, yet was not "the solution" to developing our own ways and means. "Passion is what is special in our day... the children and ourselves are passionate about our creations; it's not just an activity — we dream about'it and plan... And we're passionate all round..." Supplies? — Got lots of basics, including wood-working tools Spaces? — Lots; with sunlight, and clear arrangement of activity areas. We're in the Youth Hostel at Jericho Beach, so around us are fields, bush, beach, mud mountains. There is a gym next door we use 2-3 hours a week. What's different about us? * the collective manner in which we work together, and our fostering those practices with the children. * our confirmation of individual needs is put within a group context. We plan space for learning at our own rate, in our own way. We all negotiate. * "we have movement, lots of time, room for our curiousity, we give voice to our values, experiences, emotions, politics, intuition. * we are friends; we are becoming more and more direct and honest. Friends here means equals, and wanting to be equals. ► OUR CHILDREN. OURSELVES We each have ways of saying what's significant about what we're doing... "Working with a group of people, putting ideas out...and making it happen...more instant gratification than anything I've done." "So important to hear the kids asking for what they want!" "...What the school makes me do...(it)... makes me look at all these aspects in a very personal way, encourages me to be responsible, and to look at where I stand and I get support within the group...I can look, and then work towards a common strategy ...I can have power to get what I want for my child...1 grow ■quite alot from facing those decisions — and I'm given support to do this." "What we have come to is that we have to act to make the changes..." "...my chief satisfaction...our strength ...we can make positive acts." "We're working our way into the clear, through to the good things in each other ...we're slowly building that feeling of trust...working on the details of how to live in community — we gotta teach skills about specific things...say blueprints and group skills..." "Always something very exciting and intimidating about beginning...crossing the gulf to 'I'm going to do it'...and we find the old ways rooted in all of us...we can get caught... then we start to put together new ways..." "My kid has no blood relatives here, and we're pretty new in town, the collective takes that place — we do consider what we do with each other ...we're not in isolation. " "We intend to share power, we intend to share information, skills, love — and we don't let being a "school" get in our way ...probably we will change a ways to accomodate us all!" How do we fit into your life? Simultaneously — In with your other com- mitments, and with the involvement of your close friends, partners, comrades, co- parents . Just as food co-ops cannot be as convenient as your "One Stop Shopping" Safeway — so we do not compete with the institutionally zed schools. (At least not now, on our own) However, the more people who share in the work, the more reasonable the load becomes for all of us. "Us", here means all of us, not just parents: child raising is a community responsibility. Neither first nor second priority When we say "simultaneously", we mean: "not second; and not first priority". Changing the way our kids are in this world is as important as working to change abortion laws. The idea is not to choose one over the other. It is clear to us who the schools serve, and whose values are taught, and that oppressive power relationships are ever present. The schools impose obedience, conformity, and an ignorance of our right to change our oppressive conditions. We lose an ability to act in this most public of places; strong emotions are "inappropriate". It is when we are together that we should hear our voices, be heard, learn to trust ourselves instead of bring shame upon our friends for speaking out. Schools coerce our belief in each others good intentions because we suffer for each other's "disruptions". Simultaneously — While we strive to make some difference in the world, we depend on that same system to teach our child "how to cope", how to be "in the real world". And how did we learn about the lies we were taught — when we couldn't cope, and when our friends couldn't. Fancy teaching techniques do not hide the power relations. There are no negotiations' between children and teachers as equals in the school system. How can a kid say "No"? Directly? Deciding to "undo" all these things at home, and staying in the belief that "the home environment is more important" only isolates us from each other; each struggling to counteract the symptoms. How much more empowering to join together, to move away from that "instrumental" role we must take if we stay isolated. Even if the home environment were "more important" what does that teach our children about how important things/ways are learned? And how much less important is the school learning? Are we not' all fearful about teaching? How do we all learn best? We're examining our experiences, asking "How do we all learn, best, and keep our power?" We are beginning, again, to take back teaching skills, and put them to our own uses. Our school/collective is a prototype, a beginning. We want neighbourhood collectives. That's one of our dreams. Now: specifics The committee involves (at present): * three meetings a month: two for business, Learning Collective one for issues * if you have time, participation down at the school in a manner that comfortably leads to some planning and teaching responsibility (if you do not have time, negotiate, please. Money is not a substitute here. ) * participation in putting on benefits and other fund raising scams: three to four times a year * as you can, fee payments, according to your income, again negotiable. If there appears to be a serious stumbling block, call us, there's a lot that can be worked out. For instance, right now, there are a couple of older kids who want to leave school...perhaps if there were other kids of that age something could jell. Finally, come and see us — we're having an Open House down at Jericho, at the Youth Hostel. To contact us ahead of time phone 228-1084 or 253-3350. And if you'd like to visit the school, or come around to a meeting, ring ahead. That way we can be sure we're not off swimming or walking. We're planning for next year, so come on around, we'll be glad to see you. Q RAPE RELIEF Rape Relief takes us on a tour of the local war zone By Kinesis staff writer Louise arrived at Rape Relief with two paper bags of clothing, wet from the rain and crying. Two nights earlier, while walking to a phone booth to call a cab, she was grabbed and pulled into a parking lot in downtown Vancouver. Despite her struggling and her loud appeals for help, Louise was raped. No one came to her assistance. She is 19, a student living at home. Her parents believe, as they have been taught, that a woman who is raped is responsible for the event. They have acted to restrict their daughter's activities. Louise does not want to go home, at least for now. Where can she go? Vancouver Transition House is forced to turn away as many as it accepts. For the thousands of Louises in need, there is no safe place. That is why Vancouver Rape Relief is planning to open a women's shelter, to serve victims^of sexist violence. For the public announcement of their shelter plans, Rape Relief recently invited members of the media on a tour of the war zone. Over a two-and-a-half-hour period, Rape Relief bussed media throughout Vancouver, making visible the systematic nature of the violent control of women through sexual assault (and the threat of sexual assault). One of us is raped every 17 minutes in Canada. So Rape Relief spokeswoman Lee Lakeman reminded us that while we were taking our bus tour, another nine women would be raped.... "I have never been free of the fear of' rape." To introduce the bus passengers to the all- pervasive nature of rape, Lakeman read us a quote from Susan Griffin's "Rape - the all ail-American crime" — "I have never been free of the fear of rape. From an early age, I like most women, have thought of rape as being part of my natural environment — something to be feared and prayed against, like fire or lightning." She also gave a brief description of a few of the women who have called Rape Relief recently: Joyce, 40. She was raped by her husband and wanted VD information. He had called the act "sex".' She had been trying to get a divorce, and the court date is happening soon. Karen, 14. Her mother called to talk about the father molesting Karen. We talked about what could be done. We may meet again. Patricia, 15. She^as raped at work by a co-worker and wanted to talk. We gave her information about VD and pregnancy. Kelly, 18. She wanted to know what to expect from police contact. She had been raped in the rapist's home. We talked about police as well as alternatives. And the list goes on. The war zone tour starts out from Rape Relief on Kingsway, and makes its way down Main to the law courts. We pass the Cobalt Hotel, scene of "continuous entertainment". And MaeDonald's where the smile is part of what's being sold. Bus services along Main were cut back in July 1979. While Rape Relief was protesting the cutbacks, a woman was raped at a Main Street bus stop. Past the porn shops around Main and Hastings. It's not reasonable to assume that baby boys are born actually wanting to perform atrocities, Lakeman points out. They have to learn. That's why there are textbooks for sale, in the porn shops. And the one in every four women in Canada who is sexually assaulted sometime in her life testifies to the success of the teaching. The images of women with brooms up our Reporter discussing the war zone tour with Bonnie Agnew, of Rape Relief raginas (to name a single obvious example) put the lives of real women in danger. "Acts of violence," Lakeman stresses, "don't occur in a social vacuum. Pornography, objectified images of women in advertising, popular music, film, the lucrative and all-pervasive trade in women's bodies and our sexist education all teach, reinforce and support rape, incest and battering. Using women is big business." From the stores full of handbooks for rape we make our way to the law courts. The law courts prove that woman is property. If you can show that the property is shop-worn, then there's no crime. If you're poor, of colour, sexually active or run-away, there's no crime. While the bus pauses near the law courts, Rape Relief worker Diane Freed acts out a partial transcript of a rape trial, dramatizing the fact that in court, it's the woman who's on trial. This raped woman was subjected to a typical barrage of questions: Had she had her drapes open, or closed? Was she wearing pyjamas? Were they clean? Had they already been ripped? You mean you screamed for help and nobody came — do you actually expect us to believe that? Lakeman commented that those rapists who are jailed (1.85?) are sent to jail for acting out what they have been taught. Their incarceration serves not to protect women but to convince the rest of society of its innocence. Poverty: economic violence Driving through the downtown eastside, the war zone spokeswomen stress that poverty, economic violence, is part of the systematic continuum of violence against women. Lakeman read from a letter from a woman on GAIN, a widow in the 50-60 age group. How do you manage on welfare, the woman asks. And answers: "You pay the rent and utilities and you eat less. Emergencies come up. Your grandchildren have birthdays, your clothes wear out. You run out of cleaning products, bus rates go up and again your food intake goes down. You live with fear — fear of the future, more illness, less money, less pride...and you're afraid of dying because it costs more to die than to live. You're obsessed with maintaining your dignity and paying your own way out of this world, even if you couldn't quite pay your own way through it." As we pass the war memorial at Victory Square, Lakeman asks us to remember all the women raped in every war, and all the women who are today being beaten and ab used. "Our war is still going on", she explains. "We are still waiting for our armistice day." Then the tour proceeds to the retail and financial district, taking a good look at the window displays in Sears and Woodwards. Young women, the Rape Relief workers explain, are taught that "nice girls" don't get raped. "Nice girls" dress smartly, with some style. Over the last four years, the fashion industry has invented the "new femininity" — clothes that hobble and confine. "Take a look at these fashions," comments Lakeman, "and imagine yourself trying to flee in those high heels. Then remember that the street rapist is on the lookout for signs of vulnerability, and that the woman dressed in the latest fashion would, in a rape trial, be accused of having made herself appear sexually available." In the financial district, Lakeman explains the myth of the unimportance of the work women do. About 12% of us work in the office, retail and service sectors, where we are largely unorganized, poorly paid, and often hired on a benefitless part- time basis. We are told that we work for "pin money" but without our work, the downtown hives of industry would grind to a halt. Every month Rape Relief receives calls from women who work in downtown stores and offices. They have been sexually harassed. And the media myth of the sexually available secretary turns the women's dilemna into a joke. The remedies for sexual harassment through the ministry of labour, are limited at best. Hence you have women's caucuses in unions, and women's movement groups like Rape Relief, Women Against Violence Against Women, and Vancouver Status of Women organizing to fight sexual harassment on the job. Then it's down Robson Street to the west end. We pass the Denman Theatre, where "Cruising" is showing. "Cruising", points out Lakeman, slanders the nature of gay experience. Leshians and gay men are frequently harassed for not being proper pieces of the sexist machine. In the west end, child prostitution is most visible. Only now are the links between child prostitution and incest becoming clear. The vast majority of child prostitutes have been sexually assaulted by a family relative or friend. They have been taught that sex is a service to deliver, on demand, to a male authority. While the bus moves through the west end, the tour guides provide examples of rape victims who have called from that area: ► RAPE RELIEF Karen. She was assaulted in her 23rd floor apartment, having been grabbed from behind while entering her apartment. The attacker threw knives at her, and slit her wrists. Convinced that she was about to be murdered, Karen fought him off. Janet. She invited her date up for coffee and he refused to leave. Under threats of a beating, she went along with him. In the morning, he called her "honey" and promised that he would be in touch soon. But there's no particular area of Vancouver where rapes are more common than others. Stranger rapes, date rapes, neighbour rapes, incest rapes, rapes by husbands — all of them happen in all parts of the city. In the west end too, tourism is raking in the bucks. Again, it has an ugly underbelly of exploitation: waitresses and hotel workers, mostly unorganized and always underpaid, provide services for others, which they can never enjoy themselves. The strike going on at Muckamuck near English Bay, is an example of this dynamic. Along Burrard to St. Faul's hospital. One out of every five women who have been raped is seriously injured: a fact which further belies the myth that rape is a crime of sexual passion. Hospitals, however, persist in treating the raped woman as evidence rather than as wounded. Many hospitals — VGH and sometimes St. Paul's — won't touch a raped woman until the police pathologist turns up. This despite the fact that kits for collecting forensic evidence are available, can be used immediately by medical staff, and are in fact in use in many hospitals throughout North America, says Lakeman. Over Burrard Bridge and up into Kitsilano, passing.the Seaforth Armouries. Referring to recent moves in the States to draft women, Lakeman asks, "why does the military want us now?" The armed forces has always been a poor man's college, but now they can't get enough men. So to fill their quotas, they have to expand their net to include women. And this move they cover with false debate about combat roles. Omitting to mention the fact that women are always raped and killed in wars, they piously intone that women are too gentle to die. The U.S. male is anxious not to have his women raped and killed by anyone other than himself. In Kitsilano, the Rape Relief tour guides discuss the "jogger poster". Some months ago, in response to repeated rapes by a jogger in the Kitsilano-Dunbar areas, Rape Relief postered the neighbourhoods with warnings about the rapist's presence and method of operating. Police were opposed to the postering because, they claimed, it would alarm women. "Deliberately hiding a reality," said Lakeman, "does not make that reality go away." Jogger poster elicited a positive response from neighbourhood women In fact, the poster elicited a positive response from women in the neighbourhoods, she added. The.only abusive call about the poster came from a jogger who complained that Rape Relief was giving joggers a bad name! Then up to the leafy depths of Shaugnessy, to The Crescent. The invisible women in these homes are the immigrant domestic workers, unprotected by even the most elementary forms of labour standards. The other women in these homes are the wealthy ones. But even they are not immune. In 1976, police handled 40 calls a day concerning "domestic disputes", a euphemism for the ceaseless epidemic of wife battering which crosses all class lines. Women who call for help in Shaugnessy, Lakeman explains, will quickly learn that rape by their husbands is a sanctioned activity. Across Granville and down along 12th Ave. an area where many older people live in apartments. Women over 75, we are now discovering, are often targets of neglect, physical and verbal abuse. The sociologists call it "elderly parent abuse", which masks the fact that the victims of the abuse are mostly women. To Vancouver General Hospital. This is an area, Lakeman explains, that police often refer to when speaking of women's need for care when walking to their cars alone at night...but still there is only one school in Vancouver which teaches self defence. Also at VGH, the Rape Relief workers discuss the fact that 5.4$ of raped women become pregnant, and affirmed Rape Relief's position that women must have the right to choose an abortion. Then it's back to Clark and Commercial Drives. As we re-enter the east end of the city, the tour takes up again the theme of immigrant women, unorganized women. Immigrants are denied childcare. Immigrants can be deported for something called "wil- full" unemployment! There are extra pressures upon women in immigrant communities to stay with the family, abuse notwithstanding.. Work, and be silent, is the message they receive. As we conclude the tour of the war zone, in the east end, Rape Relief emphasizes the connections between those "carefully woven whips of poverty and violence." On Venables, Lakeman reads from a letter written only blocks away. It's about the reality of living, on welfare, in a violent situation: Living on welfare is... "being told to go and find a man, any man, who has a good job. And latch on to him and let him support you and your kids. It doesn't matter whether or not you feel anything for him, you don't have to marry him, you know...Being told, we think you should try going back to your husband. Back to what? Having your nose broken a few more times and your face looking like it's been through a hamburger machine? Maybe this time he would end up killing you or one of your kids. To be asked if maybe you're not exaggerating just a little bit... "Then there are the people who know how you feel, what you feel, what it's like not to have enough of anything to go around, how you should be raising your family. In fact they just plain know everything. Will somebody please tell me how anyone can know how or what I feel unless they have walked in my shoes? We, on welfare, are people, not statistics to be stacked in neat little compartments. I once heard a lady say, "We need the poor, they teach us compassion^" I've got news for that lady, find another way." As we return to Rape Relief, the tour- guides summarize the intent of this tour of Vancouver, like any other North American city, a war zone of sexist violence. "Today's tour," the media is told, "was intended to draw attention to the realities of violence against women so often ignored and mystified. And to ask for support for this next stop in work against rape in Vancouver, a Rape Relief women's shelter." "This house will be a residence, a safe refuge, a place free from the threat of violence. It will be an opportunity for women to get and give support. With mutual respect and trust, women, working together, will begin to regain the control that has been denied us." Fund raising for refuge Rape Relief has decided to fund this house independently. Their experience with government contracts is that they would be facing strings, yearly cutbacks, and annual' humiliating haggling about the economic needs of the women in the house. So far, Rape Relief has raised more than $25,000 plus several ongoing pledges of money, skilled labour and necessary household items. Past fund-raising events have included a benefit dance, a festival, two walk-a-thons along Stanley Park Seawall, a mass mailing, sale of T-shirts and buttons.... The next walk-a-thon around the seawall is planned for Sunday May 4- Please contact Diane or Chris at Rape Relief 872-8212 for more information. 0_ VICTORIA GENERAL CUTTING OFF ABORTION SERVICES (cont. from p. 3) According to one board member, the Victoria General Hospital Board is "extremely vulnerable to being taken over by one-issue candidates." Over half the board members (nine of the 14) are elected by the hospital society, which anyone can join for $2.00. Three seats are up for election every year, and it is easy for several hundred supporters to swing an election and elect their one- issue candidates. Jubliee is less vulnerable: only four board members are elected. Many of the doctors polled about the committee expressed displeasure with the federal law requiring abortion committees to decide -on abortion cases. Dr Shorting, chief of the medical staff, said: "It's a bad law. Doctors are being forced to sit and pass judgement on a bad law. I can't see anything but further problems unless it's changed." The medical profession has, in general, criticised the abortion committee system ever since it was adopted. A recent editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said: "Doctors should not be forced to play God or assume the function of gatekeepers to decide which unwanted children should be allowed into this over-populated world, and which ones should not." Dr Critchley, chairperson of Jubilee's therapeutic abortion committee, believes that "the choice on abortion should remain between a woman and her physician." At the opposite end of the spectrum lies the Victoria General committee which rejects the World Health Organization definition of health - "a complete state of physical and mental well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" - adopted by Jubilee. The WHO definition of health, they say, was "not intended for use in justifying abortions." Defining health strictly as the absence of disease, they say that abortions should be done "for significant medical reasons only." Dr Mary Conley, who practises at Jubilee, and has had several of her patients' abortion applications turned down by the Vic General committee, commented: " So if a woman has diabetes, multiple sclerosis cancer of the uterus, then she may be eligible for an abortion. But a woman who has three small children and a husband out of work, and who is so depressed that she can't .sleep or look after her children because of her distress at being unwillingly pregnant, would not be eligible. Michael Butcher, executive director of Royal Jubilee said: "Women are always going to need abortions. If they aren't provided in hospitals they will go to the so-called backroom butchers. Abortion is a service that is obviously required." CARAL's spokeswoman Jennifer Lowen had this to say: "The situation in Victoria is a shocking example of the ambiguities of the Canadian abortion law, with one committee approving all abortions, and the other, working under the same law, approving none. The abortion law was passed 11 years ago, and we are still fighting just to maintain the status quo. Abortion must be removed from the Criminal Code." CARAL waging an active protest On March 29, the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League demonstrated in Victoria. They focused public attention on the restrictions at Vic General, the anti-choice statements'of B.C.'s health minister Rafe Mair, and the archaic nature of federal abortion laws. $> FEMINISM AND THE LEFT Women and Socialism: accounting for our experience—a review By Helen Mintz ."Women and Socialism: Accounting for our Experience" is a pamphlet written and published by the Vancouver Women's Study Group (VWSG). The pamphlet addresses the question which the VWSG sees as the principal weakness of the left in regards to women. That is, the division between men and women of the working class. The VWSG points out that "in the struggle to [ build a real unity of interests among men and women it is crucial to understand the divisions, how they have developed, how | they are maintained and who has an interest in maintaining them". This is important theoretical work. In analyzing this question, the pamphlet provides an important place for socialist and feminist women to begin to establish when and how we will unite with men. Like all work which breaks new ground, this pamphlet has weaknesses. I think that it fails to deal adequately with the relationship between working class men and both the capitalist and imperialist system itself and the capitalist class. Although a short pamphlet cannot deal with everything, in neglecting to look at the forces which act on working class men, the pamphlet fails to provide a clear analysis of the material basis for men giving up the privilege they have. The pamphlet analyzes division between working class women and men by looking at the position of women in the work force and in the family. Women in the workforce There haj been a dramatic increase in the participation of women"in the workforce since world war two. Despite this increase, the inequality of women's position has been maintained. One of the central features of this inequality is a labour force segregated by sex. "The development of this segregated labour market has not just meant that men and women do different j< in the society, but that women consistently do the worst jobs." According to the pamphlet "the segregation of the labour force by sex is not essential to the functioning of capitalist economies. In fact, capitalism provides the possibility for the elimination of a division of labour based on sex." Thus the sex segregated work force is seen to be principally a result of the response of working class men to the threats to their jobs posed by women entering the work force. Although the pamphlet sees that the sex segretated work force is "the result of the combined actions and alliance of capitalists, the state, and trade unions", it implies that it is the unions which are principally responsible for its maintenance. This analysis of women in the work force is useful for us in understanding.the particular form that women's inequality takes. However, the VWSG has not sufficiently analyzed the relationship between the male trade unions and capitalism and imperialism. Capitalism is based on the exploitation of working people. Profit is created by the labour of working people for which we are not paid. While some workers may earn more than others, workers generally are not paid for the work they do. This is true not only of organized male workers but as well of the large pool of low paid workers (generally women and immigrants although not always) who are necessary to the functioning of the capitalist economy. Within the overall system of capitalism, the difference between the two groups is a difference of degree of exploitation. White male workers have more often been organized. They have often been in a privileged position in relation to other workers. It has been clear that this position of relative privilege is not available to The main point we have been trying to make in the preceding sections of this paper is that the experience of working class women is not only different from that of working class men, but also that this difference provides a material basis for divisions between women and men under the current organization of society. These divisions cannot be overlooked or ignored in the name of unity. Understanding this point has some very real implications for where and how we work politically. There are situations where women's interests differ from men's, at least in the short term, and women must engage in struggles which work to further their interests, even when this means confronting the interests of men. _ Women and Socialism - all workers under capitalism Thus, they have had two choices. Either to fight for a little extra for themselves or else to fight against wage exploitation for all workers. They have chosen to guard their privilege closely. In challenging the existence of wage exploitation in our society, the unions would have been challenging capitalism, which they have, overwhelmingly, been unwilling to do. I disagree however with the pamphlet's analysis which sees the male trade unions as the principal force in maintaining the sex segregated work force and the unequal position of women within the work force. It is true that the trade.unions have protected their relative privileges, often at the expense of gains for other workers. But this has been because they have understood that the capitalists have not been prepared to grant these privileges to all workers. Thus, while continuing to exploit them by paying them less than the value of their labour, the capitalists have been able to stop many trade unionists from really challenging this injustice Women and Socialism 9 Capitalism has stopped them by paying them more than other workers are paid. It is the old tactic of divide and rule. It is important for us to understand that the male trade unions have often stood against us. But it is also important for us to understand that it is capitalism itself which has been principally responsible for a situation in which workers are exploited for their labour. It is the capitalist class which has played the principle role in maintaining the wage exploitation of women as well as men. Women in the family The pamphlet analyzes the changing role of women within the family. "For capitalism to develop it needed to expand beyond its boundaries, move into new areas of production and seek new markets. Gradually it took over most of the productive functions previously performed by the family." This is true not only in relation to the creation of products such as canned goods and clothing, but also in relation to services that range from cooking (restaurants) to raising children (compulsory education). Because of the flexibility of the work that women do, both in the home and outside, they have been in a position to take up the slack during the booms and busts of capitalism. The pamphlet points out that "in the vast majority of cases, women who enter the labour force gain an income but remain economically dependent (on men)...This dependence, and the resulting vulnerability and powerlessness of women, is most commonly taken for granted as part of the definition of family. The fact that women do the housework and take care of the children has the appearance of arising out of human nature..." But, the pamphlet goes on to point out, the experience that women have within the family, is not the fault of individual women, but rather "determined by laws and regulations which place women in a dependent relationship to men." The difficulty experienced by women in taking action when we experience violence in the family is just one of the countless examples of such laws and regulations. "Women and Socialism" points out that men profit directly from the dependent role that women play within the family. The pamphlet does attempt to analyze the relationship bewteen the ways in which men, on the one hand, and the state on the other, profit from women's oppression. Unfortunately, this analysis is far from adequate. When no longer necessary within the labour force, female labourers have been reabsorbed into the role of housewife and mother with the individual or the family bearing the economic burden of the loss of income. We can see that the capitalist class has a large investment in maintaining women's unequal relationship both in the work force and in the home. In this way the capitalists have not only had cheap workers whenever they needed them, but as well, a work force which is bated, fed, and emotionally pacified (somewhat anyways ). In future work we will have to look at the important trends within the workforce affecting women's work. With the expansion of the white collar and service sector and the contraction of the industrial and manufacturing sectors, jobs in the areas in which women work are growing, while jobs in the traditional male sectors of the economy are declining in number. A recent study of women's employment during a period of recession in England showed that although in particular situations women are more vulnerable-than men in regards to lay-offs, overall the sectors in which women work are less hard hit than the traditional male sectors. Thus, the reality of women as a reserve, to be pulled in and out of the work force, is changing. * FEMINISM AND THE LEFT "Women and Socialism" is an important beginning in challenging some of the shortcomings in existing analysis of women's situation under modern capitalism. The pamphlet examines women's experience from a materialist point of view, giving valuable insights into our present situation in relation to working class men, both in the work force and in the family. This work should be continued. It is only in examining the basis for the division that we can develop an analysis of how to 'overcome it. I think that the principle shortcoming of this pamphlet is its failure to analyze the relationship between working class men and capitalism and imperialism. According to the pamphlet, the solution to the problem of building unity between men and women rests with a choice that men must make. "They can choose, as they have done in the past, to side with the bourgeoisie to maintain the privileges which they gain from women's inequality; or they can sup- • port women's demands for equality, at the expense of privilege. The first choice reinforces division; the second works towards unity." But why in hell should men choose to give up privilege? Certainly not so that they can get into the IWD dance for three dollars like all the women (joke). No, men will give up their immediate privileges only when they feel that it is in their interests to do so. And nothing convinces like power. It is important that the women's movement continue to develop. We must deepen our understanding of the material conditions we face. We must develop greater clarity around our demands and determination and effectiveness in fighting for these demands. But we can also examine the concrete advantages that men have to gain in relinquishing their immediate privilege. And it is in examining the relationship between working class men and capitalism itself that we begin to see this. We begin to see the ways in which men as well as women are oppressed by capitalism. We see the wage exploitation of both men and women. We see the plunder of our earth. We see how men suffer from their socialization which teaches them to expect nurtu- rance. We see how capitalism oppresses and dehumanizes all people. And so, while many privileges accrue to working class men through their oppression of women, this oppression maintains division between women and men. This division helps to maintain a system in which both women and men suffer, in which both women and men are exploited. Men have been bought off cheap. As the crisis of imperialism deepens, men in developed countries will experience increasing erosion of their privilege. Perhaps this will make their class situation clearer to them. The advantages of allying with women against capitalism and imperial ialism may become more evident. Really fighting against the capitalist system demands that men stand side by side Women and Socialism with women and not on our heads. And in standing side by side with us, they'll have to give up privileges they would rather maintain. "This is the reality. But men will not be convinced based on a moral argument about right and wrong. It is the strength of the women's movement and the concrete effects of the contradictions of capitalism on their lives that will convince them. Women who see themselves as feminists and marxists are trying to figure out the best way to do political work right now. We are trying to figure out how to relate to both the women's movement and to the left. The pamphlet points out that we often feel alienated in both situations. "In some parts of the women's movement when we raise the issue of class, we are seen as being too sympathetic to men and thus are suspected of selling women out.... Then in the communist movement, when we raise issues that are of particular concern to women or question how more general issues will affect women, we are branded as bourgeois feminists." How to do political work Unfortunately, the strategy proposed in the pamphlet does not deal with this dil- emna. The pamphlet suggests that "socialist women, like ourselves, could form organizations which would continue to analyze and fight against women's oppression, from a socialist perspective. Such an organization would not be formed around a single issue campaign, although we would of course take up specific issues in the course of our work." I feel that this type of broadly defined socialist feminist organization would be a mistake. As socialist women we can work together around clear and limited aims. This pamphlet is an example of the important work that a socialist women's group could undertake. However there is no reason for socialist women to form a separate organization which would take up issues as they arise. Our differences with the work of the women's movement where they exist are not the specific issues which are taken up, but the ways in which the struggles for these specific issues are tied to a more long term strategy for social change. Our role is to support the work being done now while trying to better make these links. We must also attempt to convince left groups to take up our concerns in the ways which we feel are essential. To conclude, I would recommend the pamphlet as valuable reading. It is written in an accessible style and furthers our understanding. The graphics are excellent, providing a rare example of political graphics that have some depth and subtlety. The pamphlet is available from the Vancouver Women's Bookstore or Spartacus for .75 or write to VWSG, P.O. Box 46534, Postal Station G, Vancouver, B.C. V6R 4G5. Cost is $1.00 (including postage) LETTERS Kinesis: I am concerned about women's attitudes regarding home births vs. hospital births. (Nov. '79 and Melanie's letter Dec./Jan. 80) I believed home births were the only way until I had my baby four months ago. 'I had been persuaded by my husband to have our first child in the hospital (and any others would be delivered at home thereafter) and I begrudgingly ' went along with his wishes. We had planned as natural a birth as possible in the hospital, with permission from our doctor to have music, flowers, and the set-up we liked best. Unfortunately complications occurred after six hours of labour and I ended up with a Caesarian section twelve hours later. During the surgery they discovered an abnormal bony protruberance in my pelvis on which my baby was stuck (undetectable without surgery or x-ray). It was pure hell, but I would not be alive now if I had had a home birth away from access to a hospital. Some people argue that you can be rushed to hospital if something goes wrong. In my case, that would have meant extreme pain and risk to my baby, due to fatigue. But there are other complications in which there may be only minutes to spare. It seems we are only gratifying our own egos to insist on a home birth and we're denying our babies the right to a safe journey into the world. Why take the chances?- The hospital staff, to my surprise, were caring and supportive throughout. It appears there has been some change in attitude, but it is slow. Because most women deliver normally I think a move away from the sterile atmosphere of hospitals is a must. Rather than giving the false impression that a home birth is our only alternative, I would like to see us push for a house or section connected to the hospital similar to those already functioning in California. This way we do not endanger ourselves or our babies but can still deliver in comfortable, homey surroundings. Let's continue to pressure hospitals and doctors to change and allow the kind of place we want rather than revert to the old way of itome births with its attendant risks. Sincerely, Patricia Turner I wish to respond to your article in the February issue of Kinesis — "More than a few lies in paradise". I find the Women Hating Advertising Tactics interpretation of the Bahamas billboard degrading. I most certainly do not feel the woman is portrayed in a defenseless position, nor does she look like a "helpless and willing victim. " It's this kind of drivel and brainwashing sarcasm that gives the Women's Lib Movement a bad name — the obvious nitpicking over a pretty harmless ad. I suppose if the couple were enjoying a cool drink under a beach umbrella you could charge them with insidiously contributing to alcoholism, and if they were dressed in Vancouver street clothes — with non- conformism. Please restrict yourselves to the things that matter — there are a lot more obvious things than this. Sincerely, Nancy Boychuk Smithers B.C. Piano Tuning & Repair BULLETIN BOARD EVENTS WOMEN'S ART GALLERY is featuring a photo exhibit by Diana Seaward on the topic "Women in Asia", from Apr. 1-29. The gallery is open 10-4pm Mon-Fri, 10-8pm on Thursdays, at #6-45 Kingsway, Van. CONFERENCES NUCLEAR CONFERENCE on April 26, sponsored by the NDP Energy Policy Committee. For information, contact the Committee at 517 E. Broadway, Vancouver, or call Barbara Horst, 876-3856. BETTY WILLIAMS, Nobel Peace Prize Winner will be speaking at the Orpheum April 17 at 8pm. Sponsored by Amnesty International. Admission free. First come, first served. A collection will be taken for the peace movement in Belfast. UPCOMING TRIAL DATES: The people involved need our support. Come to the trials to offer support and see first hand how the system deals with those who oppose it. April 8-9: Bill Burgess of SFU 18, 9:30am, 6260 Gilpin, Burnaby April 10-11: Ross Matthews of SFU 18, 9:30am, 6260 Gilpin, Burnaby April 14-16: Linda Ruedrich of SFU 18, 9:30am, 6260 Gilpin, Burnaby April 14 & 18: Third scab attempt to decertify Muckamuck Restaurant. 9:30am, Labour Relations Board offices, 1275 W. 6th Ave, Vancouver CHOOSE SURVIVAL at the April 26 International Day of Anti-Nuclear Protest. March from Kitsilano Beach at 12 noon over Burrard Bridge; rally at 2pm at Sunset Beach Park (beside Aquatic Centre). WALKATH0N for Rape Relief House, Sunday May 4, Ham around Stanley Park Seawall. Rape Relief invites you to walk or sponsor a walker. Contact Diane or Chris, 872-8212 for info and pledge sheets. Childcare available. ON THE AIR WOMANVISION'S April program: Apr. 7--Working Women, including trade union women and poetry about work from the Poets Union. Apr. 14—Women in the Arts Apr. 21—Coverage of the Midwifery Conference, held Feb. 29-Mar. 1 Apr. 28—News Show Womanvision on Co-op Radio, 102.7FM, Mondays from 7:00-8:00 pm. THE LESBIAN SHOW'S April program: Apr. 3—Lesbians and S&M, pros and cons Apr. 10—20th Century Lesbians, Part I 1910-50 Apr. 17—20th Century Lesbians, Part II 1951-80 Apr. 24—Robin Tyler, an evening of comedy The Lesbian Show on Co-op Radio, 102.7 FM, Thursdays from 7:30-8:00 pm. MEETINGS WOMEN IN TRADES meeting will be held April 13, 2 pm at 2152 McDonald. All tradeswomen and women interested in trades are welcome. WORKING WOMEN UNITE will be holding a public information meeting April 21 (Tues), 7:30'pm, CUPW Hall, 950A Richards St, Vancouver. Discussion on equal pay for work of equal value. WOMANKIND PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS SISTERHOOD ATTRACTIONS.' A party featuring Judy Gum- boots, Mona Arens, Carol Street, Brass Tacks and Jenette Grittani from Nelson. Reggae—Dance.—Music. All welcome; tickets $3.50 at Ariel Books or Women's Bookstore. This party is a benefit for Margaret Marsh, midwife AND the Vancouver Women's Coffee House Collective. Friday, Apr. 18, 8pm, Oddfellows Hall, Graveley & Commercial, Vancouver. SEXUAL HARASSMENT ON THE JOB conference will be held May 30-June 1 at Sheraton Landmark Hotel, Robson St, Vancouver. Contact your local union or labour council; all unions have been notified of this event. WORKSHOPS CELEBRATION, workshops by Sara JoyJ)avid, clinical and consulting psychologist/ feminist therapist. Apr. 2-6: women only/Galiano Island. Call 539-2547, Galiano. Apr. 26-27: women only/Victoria. Contact Judy Harvey, 933 Empress Ave., Victoria (383-0236) SELF DEFENCE FOR WOMEN with Marsha Ablowitz. Women only; no previous experience necessary, all ages welcome. All proceeds toward Rape Relief House. Apr 18-19, Ballet Room, Trout Lake Community Centre, 3350 Victoria. Fee $18 (negotiable). Bring a lunch. Call Joni Miller at Rape Relief, 872-8212 for information and registration. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM WORKSHOP for women: an afternoon to focus on the techniques of constructive criticism and the ideas behind it. Suggested reading, Constructive Criticism by Gracie Lyons, available at women's bookstores. Sunday, April 13, 12-5pm at Britannia (over library), 1661 Napier St, Vancouver. Childcare available (call Karen 253-5654 or . Paulette 255-0523 by Apr. 6). Fee $3 (negotiable). No experience is necessary. COURSES WOMEN'S STUDIES AT S.F.U., summer 1980: Women in Canada, 1600-1920—day course, July/August, instructor B. Todd, no prerequisite Special Topics: Women and Religion— day course, July/August, instructor B. Blakely, lecture/tutorial, pre- requesite 60 credit hours or permission of instructor Special Topics: Women and the Law— evening course, May/August, instruc- tor L. Baker, lecture/tutorial, pre- requesite 60 credit hours or permission of instructor As well as courses of directed reading and research. Contact the general office at 291-3593 for complete information. WEN-DO, Women's Self Defense: Basic Wen-Do Classes: Apr. 9—6 wks, Burnaby Central School, 299-4361, 7:30-10pm, $20 Apr. 9—6 wks, Carson Graham School N. Van, 985-8741, 7:30-10pm, $20 Apr. 15—6 wks, Capilano College, N. Van, 986-1911, 7-9:30pm, $25 Apr. 15—Mt. Pleasant Community Ctr. 874-8165, 7:30-10pm. $20 Apr. 19-20—2 day workshop, North Island College, Pt. Alberni, 10-5pm $20 Apr. 22—6 wks, Kitsilano Community Centre, 734-4974, 7:30-10pm Intermediate Wen-Do Classes: Apr. 23—8 wks, Capilano College, N. Van, 986-1911, 7-9pm, $28 Mon&Thurs—7:30-9:30pm, Mt. Pleasant Community Centre, 16th & Ontario $6/week. Classes can be arranged for groups of 10 or more women. For information contact Wen-Do West, 2349 St. Catherines, Vancouver (876-6390). WOMEN'S RESOURCES CENTRE Spring Courses: The Woman's Dance II: Belly Dancing— Mondays 7:30-9:30 starting April 14, 6 sessions, fee $25, instructor Iona Whishaw, Lynnmour Centre ND101 Wen-Do: Women's Self-Defense, Beginner —Tuesdays, 7-9:30pm starting April 15, 6 sessions, fee $25, instructor Alice MacPherson, Lynnmour Centre ND101 Assertiveness Training—Thursdays 7:30 -9:30 starting April 17, 5 sessions, fee $21, instructor Joanne Oben, Lynnmour Community School (staff room) Assertiveness Training—Saturdays 9-4pm starting April 19, 1 session, fee $20, instructor Jessica Easton, Gleneagles Community School Assertiveness Training—Saturdays 10-5pm starting May 3, 1 session, fee $20, instructor Jessica Easton, Information Centre, 1357 Wharf St, Gibsons How to Decide: Life and Career Planning for Women—Tues&Thurs 10-12noon, April 22,24,29,May 1, 4 sessions, fee $15, North Vancouver City Library (activity room), instructor Joanne Oben Wen-Do: Women's Self-Defense, Intermediate—Wednesdays 7-9pm starting April 23, 8 sessions, fee $28, Lynnmour Centre ND101, instructor Alice MacPherson Changing Jobs—Saturday, 9-4pm, April 26 1 session, fee $20, Lynnmour Campus ND101, instructor Suzanne Bolton Going to Work: How to Land a Job—Saturday 9-4pm May 10, 1 session, fee $20, Lynnmour Campus ND101, instructor Suzanna Bolton For information, call the Women's Resources Centre, 986-1911, local 350. To pre- register for courses, send fee and info to: Community Education, Capilano College, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, B.C. VANCOUVER STATUS OF WOMEN 9-6 pm Hours: Monday-Wednesday Thursday 9-9 pm Many thanks to all of you who supported our-annual funding battle in Victoria.' VSW provides free assistance to low income women on income tax and child tax credit. Call us at 736-1313 and set up a time to come in. VSW's public meeting on a ward system for Vancouver is scheduled for Wednesday May 14 at 7.30 p.m. at Kits House (7th and Vine). Speakers include Aider- persons Mazari and Rankin, with Jean Swanson and Susan Hoeppner. VSW's ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: Thursday June 26, 7.30 p.m. 517 East Broadway. April 29 is the date set for VSW's appeal of City Hall's denial of funding to maintain an advocacy worker at VSW. Bodies are needed at the appeal. VSW OPEN HOUSE, April 25, 3 - 7 p.m. Come and celebrate our provincial funding, and lobby alderpeople for our City Hall appeal. VSW has received a summer works grant from Secretary of State. This means we can hire two students (age 19-24) for the period of May 5-Sept. 5 to research current issues relating to the status of women, plus assist workers in the office.* Apply soon to VSW, 1090 W. 7th Ave, Vancouver (736-1313). BULLETIN BOARD GROUPS SORWUC needs new volunteers. Evening work is fine; training provided. Call 684-2834 or 681-2811. SORWUC's address: 814-402 W. Pender St, Vancouver. If you're a SINGLE PARENT having hassles with welfare, a self-help group is forming. Call 931-8154 (7pm-6am) for information. WOMEN'S GROUP forming to discuss mutual concerns about infertility. Call Beth at 738-6397 or Harriet at 438-3397. OUTDOOR CLUB FOR WOMEN has the following meeting and events.planned for April: April 8—film oh white water rafting April 12—day hike to Greendrop Lake April 27—cross country skiing at Singing Pass, Whistler Membership fee is $45/yr, which covers instruction, equipment use, and special trip rates and discounts. Call Clasina at 683-2531 for more information. LESBIAN MOTHERS DROP-IN meets Sunday at 2pm at the Women's Bookstore, 804 Richards St, Vancouver. For info, call Laurel, 525-1336 or Lynn, 734-9784. DROP-IN FOR YOUNGER LESBIANS meets every Thursday night, 7:30-10pm. Lesbians under 21 welcome. 1501 W. Broadway. Contact the drop-in by calling LIL, 734-1016. April 3—lesbian/feminism April 24—B.C. Federation of Women For May—planning discussions on radical feminist therapy, women's history LESBIANS OVER 40 meet Monday night at 7:30 at the Women's Bookstore, 804 Richards St, Vancouver. Come join us. LESBIAN INFORMATION LINE (LIL) is open to calls two nights a week, Thursday and Sunday, from 7-10 pm. Call 734-1016. LIL is training new members. Lesbian feminists interested in working with them, call Carol at 872-8212. JUST OUT THE TRADESWOMAN is a new publication from Blue Collar Tradeswomen, a U.S. national organization of women in construction and other trades. To subscribe, write them at 5504 14th St N.W., Washington DC 20011. Recent titles at the women's bookstores: ARIEL BOOKS, 2766 W. 4th Ave. 733-3511 Girls Can Be Anything, Norma Klein, $3-25 Sex, Gender & Society, M. Oakley, $3-95 Joy of Lesbian Sex, Dr. Emily Sisley and Bertha Harris, $9.85 Seed of a Woman, Ruth Geller, $6.95 Bodies, Barbara Bremer, $11.50 Some Do, Jane de Lynn, $3.00 WOMEN'S BOOKSTORE, 804 Richards 684-0523 Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood, Our Goddess & Heroine Heritage, Merlyn Stone, $6.95 World of Light, Portraits and Celebrations, May Sarton, $11.95 (h/c) The Coming Out Stories, an anthology with foreword by Adrienne Rich, $6.95 Our Mothers' Daughters, Judith Arcana with introduction by Phyllis Chesler $4.55 On Lies, Secrets and Silence, Selected Prose, 1966-78, Adrienne Rich, $5.50 WOMEN IN FOCUS has the following available: Bibliography—30pp, annotated, on violence against women, cost $3-00 Leaflets on Violence in the Home (in 7 languages) and Sexual Harassment in the Workforce (in English only), cost $5.00 per 100. Slide/Tape Presentation, Reclaiming Ourselves: A Feminist Perspective of Pornography, available in 3 taped formats, 30 mins..Cost: rental, $25, plus postage and handling $10; or for workshop presentation, $50, plus travelling expenses for 1 woman from Vancouver area. Film—16mm, 20 mins. on Sexual Harassment of Women in the Workforce. Available late spring/80. Cost to be arranged. Contact Women in Focus at #6-45 Kingsway Vancouver (872-2250). CLASSIFIED WORK EXCHANGE, a member-run community exchange with about 80 members, where people exchange work for work rather than money. No fee, people of all ages welcome. For information, call 689-4787 or 879-9946. MAKARA NEEDS A FEMINIST SALESPERSON. Makara is a worker-owned, worker- controlled feminist graphic arts collective. High job satisfaction, wages $550/month. Call 253-8931. PRESS GANG IS HIRING. Press Gang is a feminist printing and publishing collective, and is looking for l) operator for a Solna 124, 2) an operator for an AB Dick 360 and 3) a bookkeeper. They stress skill sharing and rotation of jobs, so new members will learn other areas of the printing and publishing trades too. Contact Press Gang at 603 Powell St, Vancouver (253-1224). The Lesbian Show Co-Operative Radio (CFRO 102.7) is now offering a tape service, through which the following shows can be purchased Introductory Show Collective Process Part I: Why They Dont Work Lesbianism From The Waist Up Collective Process Part II: Why They Do Work Our Role Models: Who Are They& Lesbians in Isolation Dyke Separatism What Is BCFW? Lesbian Perspectives on Spirituality Lesbians and the Constant State of Coming Out What Does a Lesbian Look Like? The Best of the Lesbian Show: June-Dec. 1979 Lesbians in Prison No Theme, Theme Show #1 Lesbian Art and the Art of Responsibility No Theme, Theme Show #2 Lesbians and Alcohol 20th Century Lesbian, Part 1,1910-1950 and our music series, Lesbians and Music: 20th Century Lesbians Part II, 1950-1979 Spotlight on Mary Watkins Lesbian Images and the Gay Movement Heather Bishop Lesbian Images In Hollywood Holly Near How Do We See Each Other? Linda Tillery Ferron Meg Christian Siren! Avedis Send orders to: The Lesbian Show, Tape Service, c/o Co-op Radio, 337 Carrall St., Vancouver B.C. V6B 2J4 Keep us goin' down the road Thank you, sustainers. Your contributions give us a powerful feeling of community support, and make the continued existence of Kinesis possible. Sustainers contribute $50 a year, in a lump sum or in installments of $5 or more. In return, you receive your own subscription, along with any number of complimentary copies for your friends. Why not fill out this sustainer form and help Kinesis continue? NAME Postal Code SUBSCRIBE TO KINESIS! I enclose my monthly installment of I enclose a lump sum of $50 Clip and mail to: Kinesis, Vancouver Status of Women 1090 West 7th Avenue Vancouver, B.C. V6H 1B3 KINESIS is published ten times a year by Vancouver Status of Women. Its objectives are to enhance understanding about the changing position of women in society and work actively towards achieving social change. VIEWS EXPRESSED IN KINESIS are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect VSW policy. All unsigned material is the responsibility of the Kinesis editorial group. CORRESPONDENCE: Kinesis, Vancouver Status of Women, 1090 West 7th Avenue, Vancouver B.C. V6H 1B3. MEMBERSHIP in Vancouver Status of Women is by donation. Kinesis is mailed monthly to all members. Individual subs to Kinesis are $8.00 per year. We ask members to base their donations oh this, and their own financial situations. SUBMISSIONS are welcome. We reserve the right to edit, and submission does not guarantee publication. Include a SASE if you want your work returned. DEADLINE: 15th of each month WORKERS ON THIS ISSUE: Anita Bates, Janet Beebe, Janet Berry, Cole Dudley, Penny Goldsmith, Morgan McGuigan, Gayla Reid, Kathleen Rivest, Janice Pentland- Smith,- Diana Smith, Joey Thompson, Lezlie Wagman, Cat Wickstrom, Joan Woodward. 24 Kinesis April 80 ANTI-NUCLEAR Make the anti-nuke, feminist connection (while you still can) By Gayelle (aka Day-glo Tulips) -Patriarchy as the reUgion of rapism legitimates all kinds of boundary violation... it extends its blessing also to the violation of life itself by scientifically "created" pollution, by the metastasizing of a carcinogenic environment — epitomized in the ever-expanding cities of the dying — and by the hideous weapons of modern warfare. Gyn/Ecology, by Mary Daly POLITENESS STINKS. The kind of politeness where you sit still and don't bring up the issue, that of nuclear energy, because after all, Kate Millett is here and everybody's talking about crisis centres and you don't want to interrupt. TIMIDITY STINKS. The timidity where you're dying to get up and say "hey — let's talk about nuclear energy" but you haven't been around the community that long. As Mary Daly says, what ever happened to the movement? Anyway, I went home feeling frustrated at missing the opportunity to talk to a lot of active women about nuclear energy, which poses a horrific and very real threat to the earth today, right now. Y.Otiat does it all have to do with feminism? The connection is obvious. As feminists we are concerned with the quality (or lack of it) of life in our world. So we also have to be concerned about the environment in which we are doing our living. That environment is in grave danger of being irreperably damaged. . You might think that B.C. is a pretty cool place to be living now that our provincial government has "seen the light" (questionable ) and banned uranium mining and exploration here for the next seven years. Well, that hardly resolves the nuclear issue. There's the Trident Nuclear Submarine Base in Bangor, Washington which is one of the first-strike targets in the event of a nuclear attack. The U.S. and' Russia right ^ WOMiN ARfP AGAitfSTtfite &£CAIJS£ I /VQftiKSf LlF£ f |$l0p\viokncc/fc>-tta, HOYim now have enough nuclear weapons to kill everyone on the planet 12 times over. Reportedly there are nuclear weapons at the military base up on Vancouver Island at Comox. . . The situation in uranium, mining, the first stage of the nuclear cycle, is grim. It just so happens that a mineral belt extending from Northern Saskatchewan through to New Mexico is within the boundaries of much land given to native Indians as reserve years ago. Hundreds of thousands of acres have been leased by multinational corporations who discovered that underlying the land (the earth, in Hopi Indian philosophy is seen as mother and nurturer to us all) are rich deposits of coal and uranium, which they want for profit, to fire power plants and reactors, among other things. Miners have died and are dying of leukemia from working in substandard and radioactive conditions. In New Mexico last . year a dam broke, spilling millions of gallons of radioactive water into the Rio Puerco which supplies water needs to the farmers and ranchers of the area. Houses and schools have been built on radioactive tailings (waste ore) and acres of tailings lie exposed to the elements. In South Dakota, more than two dozen multinational corporations are preparing for a major development (assault) of the uranium and other resources of S.W. Dakota. The Trilateral Commission, whose members include government officials, advisors, and heads of multinational corporations (you may be interested to know that B.C. Hydro's Chairman Robert Bonner is a member) has designated these Black Hills as a "national sacrifice area" meaning that the area resources will be stripped and left largely uninhabitable. THIS MADNESS MUST STOP AND NOW!! ! In the words of Dr. Helen Caldicott, anti- nuclear activist, "We can no longer afford to entrust our lives, and the lives and health of future generations, to politicians, to bureaucrats, experts, or scien- ' tifie specialists.... The survivial of our species depends on each individual." April 26 is the International Day of Anti- Nuclear Protest. In Vancouver, a massive march and rally is in the planning stages. The issue concerns us all. Bring everyone you can, sisters, cousins, aunts, and neighbours down the block. Get involved. Our future depends on us all today. Cj Concerned Citizens for Choice on Abortion (CCCA) has greeted the spring with a stepped-up campaign, including the March 22 organizing conference, i'lt has become more and more clear", said Ann Thompson for CCCA, "that even the limited rights we have been able to attain with respect to the accessibility of abortion services are in very real danger of being cut back or eliminated." Support for CCCA was reiterated at a March 11 press conference 'by representatives from the B.C. Federation of Labour, the YWCA and Vancouver Status of Women. Spokesperson for the board of directors of Vancouver YWCA was Susan Witter. "Ours is a multi-cultural, pluralistic society with a wide variety of accepted religions, political beliefs and life styles," Witter pointed out. "We maintain that those who do not believe in abortion need never avail themselves of it, but we do not believe that any group has the right to limit or bind those who do not share like moral or religious convictions," she concluded. On Saturday, March 22, over 100 people from Vancouver and across the province attended a day-long organizing conference, designed to coordinate efforts to defend and expand accessibility to abortion. It was an exciting, energizing day. Participants attended workshops on organizing around hospital boards, the particular problems of rural women, alternative structures, province-wide organizing and repeal of the abortion law. The conference endorsed the formation of active, locally based committees to CCCA escalates defence of abortion rights be linked through a provincial network coordinated by CCCA. The conference also proposed a plan of action to include a series of local events building to a Day of Declaration on Abortion Rights to be planned for late fall of this year. "It is clear that the time has come for decisive action on this very fundamental issue," said Ann Thompson. "This will include not only defending our interests through annual hospital board elections, but working to ensure accessibility to those services which already exist, promoting new and better services for women, and repealing the federal law which puts restrictions on our right to choose." Q Voice of Women has anti-nuke tapes for rent "I am petrified," says anti-nuke activist Dr Helen Caldicott. "And why everyone else isn't, I don't know." Caldicott goes on to detail how we are collectively committing suicide, maintaining national security by mutually assured destruction. Everyone in the northern hemisphere is already contaminated, comments Dr Rosalie Bertell. We have Strontium 90 in our bones and Iodine 129 in our kidneys. On March 19, the Voice of Women presented an information afternoon at Robson Square which featured several AV tapes of Caldicott and Bertell. These tapes are available to women's groups for viewing. Contact the Voice for details: Marian Shipley - 988 756-4 Q INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ANTI-NUCLEAR PROTEST APRIL 26 MARCH Kitsilano Beach 12 Noon (march over Burrard Bridge) RALLY Sunset Beaehftark 2FM (beside \foncouver Aquatic Centre) Vpril 26 has been declared Vamouv.r \„,l,ar\ twareness Day by Cily Council and tlu- M..\.,,' Drop in at the Vancouver WOMEN'S HEALTH COLLECTIVE on SKILL SHARING DAYS • CERVICAL SELF-EXAM and ?A? TESTS • BTOOD PRESSURE •BREAST SELF-EXAM • MICROSCOPE PRACTICE and CULTURES • Wild!J the FIRST SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH, 1-5 PM BRING YOUR SPECULUM IF YOU HAVE ONE1. WmmQVGZ 1501 V' BR0ADWAY corner of GRANVILLE TELEPHONE 736-6696 llOW* NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED NC CHARGE KIDS PLAY AREA AVAILABLE! 2* but but WOMEN'S HEALTH SERIES 3rebARl> OF P\KETTbRS . \l>R04 D>> Hc&P»TA.J.,V0UNANe tTfj Wednesday who sells health 0 why we buy it April 16 7:30-9:30 pm • how organized medicine took • our attitudes towards control over healing conventional medical treatments .,,,,:;., who needs x-rays & the myth of Anril 23 7:30-9:30 pm • uses and abuses 10<W~lCVel radiation the politics of breasts WEDNESDAY April 30 7:30-9:30 era • body-image and exploitation • breast disease and nutrition SATURDAY m m mm ~+ • • y 3 ski 11-sharing 1-5 DID at the Health • cervical self-examination • breast self-exam Collective • pan testing • microscope practice TMSday~ over-the-counter & herbs as 7ool9!3n tv. dangers medicine • the uses and abuses of • sharing our experiences non-prescriotion drugs and changing our attitudes _J _ VJhLNESDAY SESSIONS AT: BRITANNIA COMMUNITY CENTRE 1661 Napier above the L1br«ry SATURDAY SESSION AT: The VANCOUVER WOnEN'S HEALTH COLLECTIVE 1501 West Broadway 730-6696 • NO CHARGE • WOMEN 0^v ■» FOR MORE INFO & CHILDCARE CALL THE .HEALTH COLLECTlt/E CITY BALL FUNDING APPEAL DATE APRIL 29 Our fight at city hall continues. On March 4, City Council turned down the recommendation of the Social Planning Department that VSW be granted $9,920 (one half of our request) to reinstate an advocacy service for women. VSW's ombudservice was discontinued in 1978, due to staff cutbacks caused by the unwillingness of the. provincial government to fund this type of service. It has become more and more clear, however, that women continue to rely on us for assistance in a variety of social and legal areas. Alderwoman Bernice Gerard has led a concerted campaign against our funding on the ground that VSW has policies .advocating pro-choice on abortion and the rights of lesbians and gay men. She has made it clear that she realizes that we perform important services fox women in Vancouver, but that we must be made an example of. In effect, Gerard i out to punish VSW and the woman who need our services and programs because of hc-.r pers^.aa.l das ::gacci.icrt with two of car policies- OUR APPEAL DATE IS APRIL 29 at 7.30 p.m. in the evening. WE NEED BODIES AT CITY COUNCIL TK ! NIGHT! We need to change two votes in order to get the funding. Although we have a majority of support on council (the vote was 6 to 5), eight affirmative votes are ;:^:)^. WITH YOUR SUPPORT WE CAN WIN. Meanwhile, WRITE TO CITY COUNCIL IN SUPPORT OF OUR FUNDING RE0UE3T, Z al us a cooy. HAVE ANT ORGANIZATION YOU MAY BE INVOLVED Wild SEND LETTERS, TOO. Address them to VANCOUVER STATUS 0? WOMEN is holding an ooen house in celebration of our provincial funding, on Friday April Z5, 3-7 p.m.at the VSW offices, 1090 Wast 7th Ave. We hope that you will come tc celebrate with as, and to renew year acquaintance with our board DAYC/nlE IS STiEL EEEOEE \- f'g v.-?y KING EDWARD CAMPUS, and the government is still letters to pile up on education minister Brian Smith's desk. Ge£ those letters off to: Save King Edward Campus Daycare, :/o VSW C9( West 7th Ave, Vancouver V6H 1B3 BCFW CONVENTION will be in Vancouver this November. The staadinp; committee is seeking a location fci the-: ccv.a. n.'aa. ':'. Tar V "-~irr.".:• a.c' s7 Contact BCFW and let '2m know. Call Gill VANCOUVER STATUS 01 WOMEN thanks all o<: you for your wonderful support in a a annual funding battle with the provincial government, THANK YOU' WITH YOUR SUPPORT, WE WON I The Richmond Pr -Choice Mov h^; is signing j.v members for the hosptiai society meeting in order eo counter anti-abortion influences on the hospital hoard. APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE RICHMOND GENERAL HOSPITAL, 7000 WESTMINSTER HIGHWAY •ship fee of $2.00 restricted to residents IT'ONE:
Preceding title: Vancouver Status of Women. Newsletter. Date of publication: 1974-2001. Frequency: Monthly. Contains 2 inserted sheets.
Periodicals
Newspapers
HQ1101.V24 N49
English
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Vancouver : Vancouver Status of Women
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Original Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. HQ1101.V24 N49
Women--Social and moral questions
Feminism--Periodicals
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