A Surprise Pie-ing!

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amanda reaume, Antigone, arts, calendar postcard art, canada, charity, comedy, community, crafts, cream pie, dreams, Dreams for women, empower, epic, face, feminism, feminist, fight, foundation, frank warren, fundraiser, funny, girl pie, girls, grassroots, hilarious, hit, magazine, messy, nonprofit, outreach, pie, pie face, pie girl, postsecret, project, slapstick, throw, viral, whipped cream, women's worlds

Thanks to Antigone Board Member Kaitlin Blanchard for buying 10 calendars! She rocks!

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Three pies in the face!

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amanda reaume, Antigone, arts, calendar postcard art, canada, charity, comedy, community, crafts, cream pie, dreams, Dreams for women, empower, epic, face, feminism, feminist, fight, foundation, frank warren, fundraiser, funny, girl, girl pie, girls, grassroots, hilarious, hit, magazine, messy, nonprofit, outreach, pie, pie face, pie girl, postsecret, project, slapstick, throw, viral, whipped cream, women's worlds

These pies go out to Janice Stewart, Linda Reaume, and Scott Turner who each bought 10 calendars! THANK YOU all so much!

Some Leaders are Born Women, Generosity Edition

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angela merke, book proposal, book publishing, canada, Council of women world leaders, cristina fernandez de kirchner, ellen johnson-sirleaf, feminist, han myung sook, helen clark, jadranka kosor, johanna sigurdardottir, kids can press, kim campbell, l book, luisa dias diogo, margaret thatcher, mary mcaleese, mary robinson, michelle bachelet, newmarket press, orca books, politics, portia simpson-miller, president, prime minister, seal press, some women born leaders, tarja halonen, women, world leaders, youth, yulia tymoshenko

I think that aside from just being born as leaders, there are a number of feminists who are also born with an incredible generosity of spirit. I could tell you countless stories of the support and help and mentorship that I have received from fabulous feminist women that has made such a difference in my life and the work that I do.

One great story is a recent one. When I announced my book project on a national feminist listserv (Par-L for those who are curious), the generosity of the replies that I got truly humbled and touched me! Within a couple of hours, the President of the Canadian YWCA had e-mailed me with an offer to try to contact two of the women leaders who were on my list who the World YWCA had worked with in the past. Also, one of my activist soul mates, the phenomenal Jessica Notwell (whom I met at the UN’s 52^nd Meeting of the Status of Women and who is involved in the World YWCA and who is also the Manager of the Women’s Economic Council) e-mailed me to tell me she would be on a panel with Mary Robinson in March and would tell her about my book project.

Finally, the publisher at a feminist press in Canada sent me an e-mail wondering if she could help. Of course, I quickly dispatched a reply to her with a copy of the book proposal asap. I am still waiting to hear back from all of them and I will update you when I do.

My strategy is to try to get at least one of the women that they have connections to to do an interview. That way, when I send e-mails to the other politicians, they will recognize the names of the women I have already interviewed and be more likely to participate.

Wish me luck! Or send me your own generous offer to help!

2010 Dreams for Women Calendar with 2010 Athletes!

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2010, American athletes, Angela Ruggiero, Ashley Wagner, calendar, canada, Canadian Athletes, Cathy Priestner Allinger, cross country, Erin Hamlin, female athletes, figure skating, first nations, First Nations Snowboard Team, freestyle, girls, hockey, Julia Clukey, Katie Willis, Kirsten Manley-Casimir, luge, Michelle Roark, Olympics, para-nordic skiing, paralympics, Rachel Armstrong, Robbi Weldon, Sara Renner, ski jumping, snowboard, speed skating, US Athletes, Vancouver, volleyball, women

Ashley Wagner, U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Team

Robbi Weldon, Canadian Para-Nordic Skiing Team

Virginia Johnston, First Nations Snowboard Team

Katie Willis, Canadian Women’s Ski Jumpers Team

Sara Renner, Canada Women’s Cross Country Team

Angela Ruggiero, U.S. Women’s Hockey Team

These are just a sampling of the beautiful postcards that are featured in the 2010 Dreams for Women Calendar featuring North American female athletes who will be competing in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games!

As an organization based in Vancouver, we wanted to highlight the powerful women who will be competing in the Games and work with them to bring attention to the importance of women’s leadership and women’s equality! We believe that these women are fabulous role models for young women and we wanted to work with them to ensure that the Vancouver Olympics has a legacy of leadership for young Canadian women!

The amazing athletes who are featured are:

Rachel Armstrong, Canada Women’s Volleyball

Julia Clukey, U.S. Women’s Luge

Virginia, Johnton, First Nations Snowboard Team

Erin Hamlin, U.S. Women’s Luge

Kirsten Manley-Casimir, Canada Women’s Volleyball

Cathy Priestner Allinger, Canada Women’s Speed Skating

Sara Renner, Canada Women’s Cross Country

Michelle Roark, U.S. Women’s Freestyle Skiing

Angela Ruggiero, U.S. Women’s Hockey

Robbi Weldon, Canada Women’s Para-Nordic Skiing

Ashley Wagner, U.S. Women’s Figure Skating

Katie Willis, Women’s Ski Jumpers

Pre-Order your calendar today and save 20% (Until November 15th!). Calendars are only $16 for quantities under 7 and $8 for quantities over 7! Learn how you can use the calendar to fundraise for your group!

BUY YOUR CALENDAR TODAY – CLICK HERE

The Last Frontier of Rank Discrimination

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canada, poverty, prostitution, Race, women in politics

Hello Ladies (and Gentlemen who support us),

I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m not a regular blogger for the magazine (just a temp really) but I’m one of the co-founders of Willa (The Women in Legislative Leadership Association). I’m a business student at Simon Fraser University, entering my fourth year. I’m planning to major in International Business and probably Marketing, Finance or both.

I’ve been in Taipei on exchange for the past four months and I’m heading to Europe to visit family and do a short internship, in about a week. So, I’ve been busy, as I’m sure you all have been. Just wanted to pop in and support Amanda and her team’s stellar work on this blog and the magazine.

I have a quote from a great article I think you all should read if you get a chance. Thanks to Ayesha Laher, who sent me the article regarding our recent discussions of the last appointment which sealed the UBC Executives (President and VPs of Everything) as all-male.

From: The Last Frontier of Rank Discrimination (The Province July 7th 2007)

There are still five times more men in Parliament than women.

Women working full-time make 71 cents for every $1 men earn. Two-thirds still work in pink ghettos of traditional “women’s work” such as health care, clerical and administrative jobs. Little more than a third of all managers are women.

Women are poor in disproportionate numbers with 38 per cent of single mothers living below the poverty line compared to only 17 per cent of single fathers.

Women are more likely to be victims of violence than men. One in every 10 Canadian women reports having been stalked in the past 10 years.

Women are many more times more likely to be forced, enticed or trafficked into prostitution and, once there, many times more likely to be charged, even though the Criminal Code offense of communicating for the purposes of prostitution was aimed at punishing the buyers and not just the sellers.

If any racial or ethnic minority had been subjected to anything near the discrimination women have suffered and continue to be subjected to, Canada would be an international pariah.

‘Honour’ Killings in Canada…

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canada, honour killings

The Vancouver Sun reports about the problem of honour killings in Canada but does so in such a cursory and muddled way, that they might as well have not said anything at all! The article starts off well, citing the issues…

A 14-year-old female rape victim is strangled to death in March 2004 by her father and brother because she has supposedly tarnished the family name.

In April 2004, a man brutally kills his wife and daughter after finding out that his brother had previously molested them.

A teenage girl with a Turkish background has her throat cut by her father after he learns she has a Christian boyfriend.

These are frightening stories that I personally would like to have more information about. My problem with the article is 1) It’s a very short and cursory exploration of the issue (apparently the issue does not merit attention?) and 2) I have some problems with what the authority (Dr. Amin Muhammad at Memorial University) who is cited in the article says.

Muhammad’s report contains statistics from the United Nations Population Fund which reveal that more than 5,000 women are victims of so-called “honour” killings each year.

“In different cultures, they can get away without being punished — the courts actually sanction them under religious contexts,” he said.

Along with extreme traditional beliefs, there are deeper mental health issues that need to be considered, Muhammad said.

Quite often, people who are willing to kill members of their own family to restore some notion of honour are doing so, not just because they believe it to be right based on culture, but also because they are mentally ill in some way.

“Somehow, it gets ignored,” Muhammad said, citing a lack of understanding in the West and the lack of mental health personnel in developing nations as part of the problem.

I’m not trying to denigrate mental health issues, or contend that they are not contributing factors to honour killings but who else is scared that such thinking will simply allow people who commit such acts to use a mental health defense? Also, 5000 women each year seems to be a lot of women to be killed by male relatives with mental health problems. It seems to me that much more is going on here and that this article acts to dismiss the larger cultural problems with the way in which women are valued or devalued in order to lead to such situations. But that’s just me.