Antigone Launches Feminist Social Networking Site on International Women’s Day!

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Blog for IWD, canadian, change., feminist, movement, social networking, women

This post is part of Blog for International Women’s Day

Hi Friends!

Happy International Women’s Day!
My name is Amanda Reaume and I am the Executive Director of The Antigone Foundation. We believe it’s time for Canada’s feminists and women’s organizations to work together to leverage the power of social networking to connect around common causes and concerns across the country, both online and in person.

That is why we are launching Antigone Connect , an online site working to engage women’s organizations and feminists across the country to work collaboratively for women’s rights and equality in Canada and around the world.

Our Goal:

We are hoping to create a powerful online network that will be able to help lead the Canadian women’s movement forward in the coming years. As we approach Canada’s 150th Anniversary, we are all aware that there is a great deal more to be done in Canada to ensure women’s equality. More women in politics and managerial positions, accessible child care, changes to the Indian Act, equal pay, and equal pensions are just a few of the things that the Royal Commission on the Status of Women identified as necessary for equality nearly fifty years ago. They have still not been fully realized and this is going to take cooperation and coordination to accomplish.

Canadian Women’s History

This past fall, Antigone Magazine put together an issue about Canadian Women’s History and we spoke to Marilou McPhedran. She talked about how women organized around constitutional issues in the 1980s to ensure that women were included within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As McPhedran mentions, they did this without even a fax machine. With phone trees, letters to MPs and a lot of conviction, these women changed our country. We can too. Many of us now have access to e-mail, the internet, social networking, maybe even Blackberries and Smartphones. Some also have well paying jobs and contacts with women and men in power who support work for women’s equality. We owe it to our foremothers to leverage all the technologies and privileges that we have to connect and make sure that their legacies are not forgotten.

Your Help

But this network is not going to happen overnight. We need your help in the days and weeks ahead to expand it and bring to the table the voices of women from all backgrounds, from groups that might not readily identify as feminists, or those who might have difficulties accessing the internet, and the voices of women and men that are allies to the work that we do. We need you to tell people about it. To e-mail your contacts about it. To post it on Facebook or Twitter. To contact your friends who might have worked for feminist causes in the past but who have gone off in other directions. To help the technically unsavvy negotiate the technology! We need to come together to create this network across Canada.

Canadian Women’s Future!

Inspired by the next issue of our magazine (to be released in March 2010) entitled The Future of Feminism, we will be offering individuals and organizations opportunities to write about their visions for Canadian feminism. In blog entries, on Antigone Connect forums, on Dreams for Women postcards, and by leading online chats, we invite people to contribute to imagining the future of feminism. Email us at antigonemagazine at hotmail.com if you are interested in helping out.

Join Us

We launched this campaign this week and we are moved and excited by the response so far. It would be great to see you at Antigone Connect.

Thanks in advance for giving this a few minutes of your time, and for sharing this message with anyone you know who would like the women of Canada to unite together to transform our country.

Thank you!

Amanda Reaume and the Antigone Team

Executive Director, The Antigone Foundation
www.antigonefoundation.wordpress.com
Author and blogger, Some Leaders Are Born Women
www.someleadersarebornwomen.wordpress.com

photo credit: wikimedia commons

Women Who Don’t Vote…

Why do some women not vote? Election Day, a documentary about the experiences of voters in the 2004 US Presidential election follows a pool of voters around to see the problems they experience. There are indeed many real factors that keep women from the polls. Here are the stats:

On Aug. 26 U.S. women mark the 87th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving them the right to vote. By some measures there is plenty to celebrate.

Women have turned out to vote at a higher rate than men since the 1980s.

In the 2006 midterm election 2 million more young women voted than in the previous comparable cycle, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, which credits the rise in part to the Feminist Majority Foundation’s “Get Out Her Vote” effort aimed at college women.

Moreover,55 percent of female voters cast their ballots for Democrats in House races, while only 50 percent of male voters did. In fact, female voters were responsible for key Democratic victories in the House and the Senate.

However, those figures do not reflect the fact that many women’s votes are missing from the count.

In the last presidential election, 8 million women registered but did not vote; another 36 million potential female voters were not registered at all, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Faith Winter, national field director of the New York-based White House Project, a nonpartisan group working to elect a female president, says the paucity of elected women is discouraging.

“When they don’t see themselves or people that look like them in the process, it’s a big barrier for participation. Not seeing yourself in power is something that’s particular to women.”

Unmarried women are actually the fastest growing demographic, but they are also one of the demographics that do not vote. The same can be said about elderly women and immigrant women, who are often discriminated against or marginalized in the voting process:

Unmarried women are the fastest growing major demographic group and represent the largest potential group of new voters, according to “The State of Unmarried America,” an annual report released on June 29 by Washington-based Women’s Voices Women Vote.

But many of their votes aren’t there to be counted. Of the 49.5 million single, separated, divorced or widowed women in the United States, 18 million are unregistered and 5 million are registered but don’t vote.

“What would make them most likely to participate is if they have more information from sources that they trust: nonbiased, nonpartisan information,” said Joe Goode, executive director of Women’s Voices Women Vote. “They don’t have the same social network or are not as politically engaged as married couples. The second major thing holding them back is cynicism towards politicians and politics.”

Goode says the women sitting out elections are hindered in general by a high degree of instability; 40 percent of young women move every three to four years and need to re-register.

Other women may be hindered more by everyday difficulties.

“Women are voting and women are voting in high numbers every year,” said Kassidy Johnson, a campus organizer for the Feminist Majority Foundation in Arlington, Va., which has a variety of programs to increase female voting. “I really believe the things that hold us back are normal, everyday things. You forget, you can’t find a babysitter or you don’t want to stand in line all day.”

Johnson points to recently married women who may not know they have to re-register if they change their names. “A woman’s name does not change automatically and it costs money to change your name. You have to change your Social Security card, your voter registration card, then the roster or your license may be wrong and your name doesn’t match up.”

Frances Talbott-White, vice president of voter services for the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, notes that among older people there are more frail women living in assisted living facilities or in hospitals.

“An abuse that can happen is that somebody can go to their nursing home and say, ‘Let me help you with your absentee ballot,’ and fill it in the way they think it ought to be filled in,” Talbott-White said.

The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum in Washington, D.C., has reported that Asian female voters face obstacles unique to their culture, as do many immigrant populations.

“For older women, a lot of it just comes from the cultural barrier, not really a stigma around voting,” Priscilla Huang, the group’s policy and program director, said. “Voting isn’t really a part of what they did in their communities or their home countries, so it’s not an ingrained process … Women tend to rely on more English proficient family members to translate the news or tell them what is going on politically. I could imagine how this might sway or influence how they vote on things.” Asian American Women Turnout Rising

However, among those Asian American women who were registered, 84 percent voted in the 2004 election and voted at a rate higher than men for the first time, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

“In the last 2006 election, two-thirds of all first-time voters were foreign born,” said Huang. “Immigrant women take voting very seriously, and they are excited to do so. So it’s problematic when all the tools are not available to them.”

Women Who Don’t Vote…

Why do some women not vote? Election Day, a documentary about the experiences of voters in the 2004 US Presidential election follows a pool of voters around to see the problems they experience. There are indeed many real factors that keep women from the polls. Here are the stats:

On Aug. 26 U.S. women mark the 87th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving them the right to vote. By some measures there is plenty to celebrate.

Women have turned out to vote at a higher rate than men since the 1980s.

In the 2006 midterm election 2 million more young women voted than in the previous comparable cycle, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, which credits the rise in part to the Feminist Majority Foundation’s “Get Out Her Vote” effort aimed at college women.

Moreover,55 percent of female voters cast their ballots for Democrats in House races, while only 50 percent of male voters did. In fact, female voters were responsible for key Democratic victories in the House and the Senate.

However, those figures do not reflect the fact that many women’s votes are missing from the count.

In the last presidential election, 8 million women registered but did not vote; another 36 million potential female voters were not registered at all, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Faith Winter, national field director of the New York-based White House Project, a nonpartisan group working to elect a female president, says the paucity of elected women is discouraging.

“When they don’t see themselves or people that look like them in the process, it’s a big barrier for participation. Not seeing yourself in power is something that’s particular to women.”

Unmarried women are actually the fastest growing demographic, but they are also one of the demographics that do not vote. The same can be said about elderly women and immigrant women, who are often discriminated against or marginalized in the voting process:

Unmarried women are the fastest growing major demographic group and represent the largest potential group of new voters, according to “The State of Unmarried America,” an annual report released on June 29 by Washington-based Women’s Voices Women Vote.

But many of their votes aren’t there to be counted. Of the 49.5 million single, separated, divorced or widowed women in the United States, 18 million are unregistered and 5 million are registered but don’t vote.

“What would make them most likely to participate is if they have more information from sources that they trust: nonbiased, nonpartisan information,” said Joe Goode, executive director of Women’s Voices Women Vote. “They don’t have the same social network or are not as politically engaged as married couples. The second major thing holding them back is cynicism towards politicians and politics.”

Goode says the women sitting out elections are hindered in general by a high degree of instability; 40 percent of young women move every three to four years and need to re-register.

Other women may be hindered more by everyday difficulties.

“Women are voting and women are voting in high numbers every year,” said Kassidy Johnson, a campus organizer for the Feminist Majority Foundation in Arlington, Va., which has a variety of programs to increase female voting. “I really believe the things that hold us back are normal, everyday things. You forget, you can’t find a babysitter or you don’t want to stand in line all day.”

Johnson points to recently married women who may not know they have to re-register if they change their names. “A woman’s name does not change automatically and it costs money to change your name. You have to change your Social Security card, your voter registration card, then the roster or your license may be wrong and your name doesn’t match up.”

Frances Talbott-White, vice president of voter services for the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, notes that among older people there are more frail women living in assisted living facilities or in hospitals.

“An abuse that can happen is that somebody can go to their nursing home and say, ‘Let me help you with your absentee ballot,’ and fill it in the way they think it ought to be filled in,” Talbott-White said.

The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum in Washington, D.C., has reported that Asian female voters face obstacles unique to their culture, as do many immigrant populations.

“For older women, a lot of it just comes from the cultural barrier, not really a stigma around voting,” Priscilla Huang, the group’s policy and program director, said. “Voting isn’t really a part of what they did in their communities or their home countries, so it’s not an ingrained process … Women tend to rely on more English proficient family members to translate the news or tell them what is going on politically. I could imagine how this might sway or influence how they vote on things.” Asian American Women Turnout Rising

However, among those Asian American women who were registered, 84 percent voted in the 2004 election and voted at a rate higher than men for the first time, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

“In the last 2006 election, two-thirds of all first-time voters were foreign born,” said Huang. “Immigrant women take voting very seriously, and they are excited to do so. So it’s problematic when all the tools are not available to them.”

Single Women Building Equity

Here is a great article about how more single women own their own homes!

Why pay rent when you can pay a little bit more a month and build your equity?” argues Brenda Bouw, former Spectator business editor and the author of Home Girl: The Single Woman’s Guide to Buying Real Estate in Canada. “A lot of women don’t want to wait around to be married or remarried.”

Jen McNaughton, a 32-year-old single homeowner who purchased her first property in 2003, agrees.

“I didn’t want to live with my parents and I didn’t want to pay rent. I wanted to invest, as opposed to investing in somebody else’s property.”

She’s not alone. A recent survey conducted by Royal LePage of 1,002 women across Canada showed 30 per cent of single women who have never been married own their own house.

This is wonderful! I think this is an important step for women to achieve their own financial security. After all, life doesn’t begin after marriage….

Single Women Building Equity

Here is a great article about how more single women own their own homes!

Why pay rent when you can pay a little bit more a month and build your equity?” argues Brenda Bouw, former Spectator business editor and the author of Home Girl: The Single Woman’s Guide to Buying Real Estate in Canada. “A lot of women don’t want to wait around to be married or remarried.”

Jen McNaughton, a 32-year-old single homeowner who purchased her first property in 2003, agrees.

“I didn’t want to live with my parents and I didn’t want to pay rent. I wanted to invest, as opposed to investing in somebody else’s property.”

She’s not alone. A recent survey conducted by Royal LePage of 1,002 women across Canada showed 30 per cent of single women who have never been married own their own house.

This is wonderful! I think this is an important step for women to achieve their own financial security. After all, life doesn’t begin after marriage….