Sometime over the past year, MAW got noticed. The release of our When Women Count Resource Manual on unpaid work, on the heels of steady activism around unpaid work and health care and child care issues, launched the organization into the main stream of public awareness.

In the fall of 1997, MAW held a symposium on unpaid work and public policy. The discussions and issues that arose from that event helped us as an organization to set priorities around our activism, and set us on a course of commitment to having a direct influence on policies affecting unpaid work in Canada.

While MAW is a successful collective, and depends on the valuable contributions of many creative, capable and committed women, the organization owes a particular debt to Evelyn Drescher, who has given an exceptional commitment to MAW and has single-handedly spearheaded much of the activity that has led MAW into an influential relationship with government and other activist groups.

In the past year, MAW has participated actively in consultations regarding the inclusion of questions on the 2001 Census to count unpaid household and care giving work; and has made a noticeable contribution to the discussion of fair taxation for Canadian families (A note of thanks must go also to Sonya Nigam and Kathryn Spracklin for their valuable work in this area).

So when the resource manual was launched, people had heard of MAW and the issue of unpaid work, and were interested in covering it. The launch of the manual received significant coverage for our organization and the unpaid work movement. Thanks to the skill and tenacity of publicity manager Georgina Hunter, MAW was much in demand; and Evelyn Drescher, with the support of Sonya Nigam, rose to the occasion as indefatigable MAW spokeswoman to bring the issue into the public eye. “We” were in both national newspapers, many local papers across the country, including the Ottawa Citizen; on CBC radio and television, both national and regional, including two phone-in shows; and on many private broadcasters as well. Of course, we bore our share of misunderstanding as well: the National Post, in an effort to find an “unusual spin” on the story, picked up on the section about breastfeeding as food production and therefore economically valuable - and it took very little to translate that into “these women want to be paid for breastfeeding” (which we do not). That coverage resulted in a lot of media discussion (not all of it flattering to MAW), and even an editorial cartoon - and you can’t get much more mainstream than that.

The summer has seen us trying to catch up on filling orders for the manual and business from past meetings, amid meeting our families’ summer needs. Meanwhile, the ever reliable and unfailing Lisa Menard managed to put out the summer issue of Homebase despite a debilitating back injury, did manage to get to Vienna, and by August had gathered up all the material for this issue; and, over on the beaches and campground of California, Kathryn Spracklin continues to labour over the Policy Paper on Unpaid Work, which, when released, will provide the unpaid work issue with another MAW boost.

The policy paper has been a work in progress for a few years now, a factor of the way we work, and our readiness to produce policy. Which brings me to another topic:

How MAW works.

Sometimes we get mail or phone calls expressing irritation that we have taken a bit too long to do something - provide some information, answer a message, mail out a book. At the risk of sounding defensive, we thought a brief description of how MAW operates would be fitting.

MAW has no office. Or, more positively, she has several - the offices, garages and basements of her many members. It is often said that the way to become a permanent steering committee member is to take home The Boxes - any boxes, be it our public education materials, old copies of Homebase, or research material. The collective assets of MAW are housed in various locations around Ottawa and even further afield. Some NGOs have one paid administrative staff person, but MAW does not. The MAW line is a voice mail box checked regularly by a dutiful member of the steering committee (currently Dale Dalessio). Finances are managed by a dedicated MAW with very little spare time (currently Sonya Nigam with the support of past finance officer Marla Waltman Daschko). Steering Committee meetings (at which decisions are made by consensus) happen around our kitchen or dining room tables. MAW is dependent on the cooperation of our partners, if we have them, and on babysitters, to free up the collective. (Another key to lifetime membership is to write the MAW Report, a task I have successfully dodged until now.)

It sometimes takes a seemingly inordinate length of time to produce a document or complete a project. The reason for that is that MAW-work, some of which is paid for by project funding, but most of which is not, has to happen in between the work we do for our families and our other commitments, both paid and volunteer.

Homebase is produced in the home office of Lisa Menard, with the support of her partner Ken Desson, compiling articles and artwork created in the home workplaces of the many contributors. MAW’s steering committee is divided into many subcommittees: correspondence (currently handled by Patti Proulx, Willa Egrmajer and Lisa Menard), research and lobby, and so on - and not surprisingly, the same women sit on several committees.

There are many things MAW would like to do, and can not for lack of resources. But there are many things MAW does accomplish, in the face of rather difficult working conditions and schedules; and we share a pride in this fact.

Homebase

The current concern of MAW is the subsistence of Homebase. At the spring meetings of the steering committee, a commitment was made to devote resources to increasing the reach and profile of Homebase. Our consensus is that Homebase represents the foundation of MAW’s roots as a support organization that gives a voice to the concerns of mothers. It is felt that all other projects and research must come second to helping Homebase thrive.

Calling all interested parties

MAW really grew last spring: our AGM included women from outside of Ottawa; we have had valuable discussions about increasing the national profile of the organisation; our steering committee has grown; we have developed greater communication with our “chapters”, and through our electronic discussion group; we produced valuable material and spoke of important things; and most important, we continued the support and cooperation that defines our organization. If you have an interest in becoming more involved, you will find yourself made welcome indeed.

Lisa Zanyk, Ottawa

Sitting around our virtual kitchen table

by Suzanne Robins

MAW’s email list, Virtual Kitchen Table (VKT) has been growing in leaps and bounds over the past few months. We now have 42 members, from Vancouver Island to Prince Edward Island to San Francisco. Our discussions run the gamut of the mundane domestic (and the Zen of housework) to the highly charged arena of politics. We’ve had threads on neighbourhoods, menstrual cramps, physicians, travelling with kids, farm families and blessing ways. I’m constantly amazed at the diverse intelligent group of strong MAW mamas, and am happy to be part of a list that fosters a safe and respectful environment in which to vent, rant and chat. Lorraine Underell-Mason handled the list manager issues while I was on holidays, and I am fortunate to have both Lorraine and Willa Egrmajer as co-List Managers to support, listen and hand hold.

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