Table of Contents

The following articles are available for reading on-line:

An update on the When Women Count MAW Resource Manual on Unpaid Work

MAW Report

 Dear Homebase - an expanded edition of letters from our readers

The remaining articles in list form: Myths of Motherhood, Herbs 'n Stuff, MAW Resource Manual, The Park, Grandma's Street, Ah!! Autumn, Healthy Outlook,Awakenings, Self-Discovery, Off the Wall, Greenspace, Musings, Intergalactic Guide, Notes from a Broad, Web Info, A Mom by any Other Name, Will that be Charitable Donations, or?

An update on the When Women Count MAW Resource Manual on Unpaid Work

The publication and launch of the MAW Resource Manual on Unpaid Work is the second and final part of the When Women Count project, a MAW project funded by Status of Women Canada. The first phase was the creation of the When Women Count Working Group (a working coalition of groups and individuals across Canada concerned about unpaid work from many perspectives) and the national Symposium on Unpaid Work held in Ottawa in October, 1997. The published Proceedings from the Symposium are still available from MAW at a special member price of $7.50.

The resource manual is first and foremost a public education tool. It falls under the category of activism known as "grassroots" - built on the foundation of political beliefs as they arise from personal experience. It is meant as a resource for all of us who are interested in the issue of unpaid work, no matter how political we feel about the issue. It will also serve as a piece of political activism, and will certainly be delivered to government representatives and policy makers as part of the continuing movement to get unpaid work done by women recognized, valued concretely and included in public policy.

The WWC/MAW Resource Manual will bring readers up-to-date on the issue of women and unpaid work, thus far... and will in fact be the most up-to-date and complete resource available. It will add significantly to the literature and understanding of the politics of unpaid work - caregiving, household work, community and volunteer work - and contribute to the growing impetus to count and value the unvalued and largely invisible labour of women across Canada and around the world. It will be the next step in MAW's struggle towards having unpaid work counted, resting securely on the foundation built by our previous projects, Step by Step and Count Us In, which included: the "Work is Work is Work" coalition to get household/caregiving work included in the 1996 Canada Census; the Census workshop kit; and the publication of the Kitchen Table Revolution a series of newsletters exploring issues of unpaid work.

The Resource Manual on Unpaid Work, like the recently-published Symposium Proceedings, will be a thick, spiral-bound source book. It will be laid out in four sections:

Part 1: Issues and Context will illuminate why unpaid work is a political issue, or, indeed, "why should we care?" There will be facts and figures, and essays explaining the issues of unpaid work in context, including:

• Definitions of work;
• Unpaid work and economics;
• Unpaid work as a human rights issue; and
• exploring the connections between unpaid work and economic security (including fair taxation and benefits) / caregiving / health care reform / volunteer and community work / poverty / reproduction / environmental issues / language; etcetera.

Part 2: The Workshop Kit is designed for women and groups who wish to run workshops to raise awareness about unpaid work, and will offer those who use it an experiential guide to understanding unpaid work issues, and effecting change. (A note: This part's really fun!)

Part 3: Activism will bring readers and policy makers up to date on what's being done about the lack of recognition of unpaid work and the (mostly) women who do it. There will be examples of courageous acts by other women... but also great ideas for becoming active in small ways, and suggestions for "everyday outrageous acts" women might want to commit.

Part 4: Resources will contain the most up-to-date and extensive bibliography available anywhere, as well as lists of active organizations, coalitions, and Websites and other sources.

Some of what goes into the WWC/MAW Resource Manual will be words that have already been written - the work of MAW writers over the years, and the words of some high-profile journalists and economists and feminists as well. There will be excerpts from interviews with the people who have been most active about trying to get unpaid work recognized - the "suffragettes" of the unpaid work movement. There will be letters and samples of other people's activism. There will be some helpful facts and figures, chronologies, speculation, analysis, and information from many sources... and, as always, MAW's trademark illustrations by our skilled graphic artists.

Only one question is now burning in your head: Is it too late to get involved? No, it isn't. We are still in need of women to bolster our Resource Manual Team: there is work for writers, researchers, interviewers, gophers, and phoners... In addition, no one is committed, as yet, to organize the Launch.

If you're interested, or if you wish to offer input, you may contact Lisa Zanyk, Editor, or Sonya Nigam, Project Manager, at info@mothersarewomen.com or leave a message for either on the MAW line at (613) 722-7851.

MAW Report

"I have nothing to apologize for! I worked, and continue to work, hard for feminism in this country," is what Sheila Copps said.

I want to begin this MAW report with one of the more exciting things that MAW participated in this November as part of the Fair Share Campaign. This campaign is the effort of a coalition of the country's national women's organizations to increase the budget of Women's Program: Women's Program (which also funds MAW's projects on unpaid work) budget has been cut from about 13 million to 8 million and this money supports all the women's national, regional and local women's organizations in equality seeking activities ranging from anti-violence issues, unpaid work, work undertaken by immigrant and visible minority women, women's resource centres etc. etc. Even R.E.A.L. Women receives money from the Women's Program, contrary to their claims of discrimination to the contrary. The slogan of the campaign is "More than a cup of coffee" which is based on the calculation that if one were to divide the money on the basis of every woman and girl child, only 53 cents is allocated less than a cup of coffee. The request of the campaign is to increase the money to a two dollars for each woman and girl child. Given that MAW is one of the success stories of the Women's Program, MAW felt that we could and should support the campaign.

Support for the campaign has meant two things. First, it connects us with the top national women's organizations in Canada including; the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women, the National Council of Women, Canada, the National Association of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, the National Association of Women and the Law, the Canadian Federation for University Women , Relais Femmes, and Fédération des femmes du Québec, among others. The importance of networking with these organizations both in terms of information exchange, but also in having a seat at the table and an impact on how the women's movement approaches issues of concern indicates just how far MAW has come. Such a coalition also gets MAW into meetings with Finance Minister Paul Martin and Heritage Minister Sheila Copps. And so within this context, MAW was chosen to be second spokesperson of the Fair Share delegation that visited with Sheila Copps and Status of Women Minister Hedy Fry.

The meeting began with a general discussion about motherhood and breastfeeding which provided a perfect lead into MAW's presentation about our work over the last years on the issue of motherwork and unpaid work. I spoke of the importance of Women's Program to MAW's work and to women's organizations at all levels. When asked where MAW's office was, I reported honestly that our offices were our kitchen tables and desks in various basements and spare bedrooms across the country.

The meeting was intense. The issues that were on the table - funding for women's organizations - but also those that were not explicit were equally important in some ways. Sheila Copps felt somewhat defensive about the difficulty that Hedy Fry was having with public criticism on a number of fronts. She emphasized how hard the work of feminists on the inside of the political machine is. Hence her words quoted above.

The success of our work on unpaid work, but also our approach to women on the inside (either as civil servants and as politicians) were two reasons that MAW was chosen to speak at that meeting. MAW has always had a good relationship with Status of Women and we have sought to support their work while standing our own ground on issues of importance to the organization. In many ways, I think that many of us could well echo Sheila Copps' words in our own lives about the difficult course we have chosen as feminist primary caregivers. We also have nothing to apologize for. MAW continues to learn about lobbying and strategizing to affect public policy through such opportunities.

Virtual MAW: Our E-Mail Discussion List or Let's Talk!

In other MAW reports you may have read about MAW's forays into the Internet and the world of e-mail lists. E-mail and E-mail lists are important forums for communication and discussion for those of our MAW members who have Internet access. Those of you who do not, or do not yet, have Internet access, please remember that the Internet is only one of threads which ties MAW members together: Homebase remains our primary vehicle. Our e-mail lists are providing MAW with the opportunity to connect with our members across Canada in ways that the Steering Committee finds quite exciting.

Our web page is another form of publication. It allows for more space for articles, policy papers, etc. The e-mail lists, however, lets us communicate with MAW members beyond your inspiring and always welcome letters to Homebase and responses to the surveys and discussion papers we have sent out periodically. In this way, we can have discussion and dialogue on issues of concern to mothers and the work we do, as well as a make decisions about policy issues and strategies. Hopefully, the MAW e-mail lists are also helping to foster a closer relationship between our members and a feeling of comradery amongst us all.

Currently, there are five MAW lists:

1) MAW Steering Committee list is primarily made up of active committee members at the local level and regional contacts. It is an administrative vehicle to help facilitate the decisions made by the Steering Committee on behalf of the organization as a whole.

2) MAW Management Committee list is a small list of between three and seven people and focuses exclusively upon the administration and management of MAW funded projects. These women are usually the signatories on the funding applications and those who have been hired by MAW to coordinate portions of the project.

3) MAW Activism (ACT) list is the main discussion list and primarily focused on discussion related to political issues and activism.

4) Radical Readers Book Group list which is intended as a forum to discuss books, at this time the list is focusing on the books of the Ottawa Radical Readers, but is open more generally to members.

5) Workshop list consisting of those MAW members who have volunteered or expressed interest in working on a planned workshop or MAW event. The list includes local members, but also members outside Ottawa-Carleton who might want to hold a workshop in their community at a future time. Currently, this committee list is planning a full day Motherhood and Muse Workshop to be held in May (See below).

The main discussion list (ACT) continues to be a work in progress. It has, as yet, none of the technical and formal parameters of many of other lists on the Internet. This means we are working step by step into making a political activism list that suits the needs of our members, as well as works with the needs and limitations of the organization. Over the past few months approximately 25 members across Canada have been participating in a variety of discussions, including some fairly basic ones about "house rules" concerning membership on the list. The rules are intended to provide guidelines of behaviour because it is important that we all have a basic understanding of what is expected. This is especially true in terms of protecting MAW as an organization, but also in ensuring that there is a certain level of privacy and also safety.

ACT List participants have commented that they find the list stimulating and fun. It is a forum for information exchange, debate and discussion. In the course of the last weeks we have had a number of different discussions on taxation, on letter writing and lobbying (for example Allan Rock on informal health care), on the idea of mother "at home" as opposed to mother "on the run", and more recently, some information on Beijing + 5 activities in Canada and follow up to the Beijing Platform for Action (1995). One of our members took "maternity leave" from the list to have a (another!) boy. Overall, the list volume is quite low - there may be no more than a dozen posts a day (however, this may change over time).

We look forward to having more Maw members join the discussions of the ACT list. There are openings for new members but, given that the list is a work in progress, the list is capped at this point at 45 members which is what we feel we can handle at this point. So, please e-mail us quickly, if you want to join at , so that we can welcome you to our list!

I have included some of the MAW List House Rules to help members get a sense of the what is expected when you join one of our lists. Not included here are our netiquette guidelines which are also distributed to new list members when they join. I want to thank Sue Robins from Winnipeg for her help in developing these house rules and the netiquette.

Motherhood and the Muse Workshop
Saturday, May 15th, 1999

Usually we have our MAW AGM in the middle of February. However delightful these evening gatherings have been, especially in the last two years when we have held them at mothertongue books, there is no getting around the fact that the weather was cold. Did I say very cold?

This year we have decided to hold the AGM in May and combine it with a full day workshop which will explore the relationship between creativity and motherhood. Central to the planning of this workshop is that we hope that members from outside of the region might be able to come and join us. We hope to have a special Steering Committee meeting on the Friday night (the AGM) and a Saturday filled with writing, drawing, discussion, food and drink amid friends, old and new. The workshop will include guided exercises by a trained facilitator/writer, quiet moments for inspired creativity, and open discussion about how motherhood is a powerful muse for many women.

Whether you are from the Ottawa-Carleton area, or from elsewhere, we hope that you join us on May 15th. Location and more details will be announced in the spring issue of Homebase. Unfortunately we cannot provide subsidies for travel, but we have several homes in which to billet members who decide to come from out of town for the weekend.

The Workshop is designed for MAW members, but will be open to the public. Advance registration of $10 is necessary to guarantee a spot. Whatever spaces are left will be available, at the door for $15. Some subsidies are available for members by pre-registration only. Please call the MAW line (613) 722-7851 for more information.

Finally

In the last MAW report, I discussed its role for the Steering Committee and in Homebase. I also made a call for members who had concerns or suggestions about the MAW report. We didn't receive any comments. The Steering Committee is interpreting this as "a good thing". Should you have something to say about the MAW Report in the future, either what we do report on, or what you would like us to report on, please let us know.

MAW List House Rules

1) Participants must be MAW members in good standing. Keep your memberships up. Remember that MAW has a policy for those times when there is financial hardship.

2) Please regard the list and the contents of the list as private, and do not share the specific contents and or names with non-members. Posting by non-members (of MAW and/or of the list) is not allowed.

3) By way of introduction, participants must post a short biography and agree to having the biography kept by the MAW list moderator in a file so that upon request of a new maw lister, a file of compiled biographies can be sent to her. The biographies will not be used for any other purpose and will not be otherwise distributed to anyone else. A call for updating the biographies will made periodically.

4) Discussions on the list are not necessarily MAW policy to be quoted in any public venue unless specifically indicated as such by the MAW Steering Committee. The MAW Steering Committee (as opposed to the Steering E-mail list) remains the forum for decision-making on administrative and policy issues. Likewise, the words and thoughts of any one posting to the list are not to be used without permission outside of the framework of the discussion list. The discussions are to be seen as kitchen table discussions, with a similar sense of collegiality, openness and informality. (Of course we all know some pretty important revolutions are fomented in kitchens, virtual or otherwise.)

5) The discussions are not necessarily limited to issues directly related to MAW issues and other kinds of activist issues and concerns can be brought to the list.

6) There is to be absolutely no flaming or disrespect shown to any mawlister either on the list discussion or through private e-mails. Anyone who does so will be taken off the list immediately. At the same time, we all know that what is different about e-mail lists is that we really aren't at the kitchen table where tone is heard and a wink and grin often place comments in context. We must use common sense in our responses and our counter-arguments. Remember to frame the discussion in terms of the issue being addressed, not the person who raised the point or asked the question.

7) Personal notes of concern (ie hope you are feeling better), distress (egads I am depressed, please help), thanks (for the information) , congratulations (on the birth) etc. are part of what keep us connected as women. It is the murmur of support that we can hear when we are at that kitchen table, but is silent over the web. This being said, please use private e-mail when appropriate in order to ensure that the volume on the list does not become too unwieldy.

8) All participants must have a sense of humour.

Homebase Magazine 1997 ©

We welcome your comments and suggestions.

Submissions and requests for subscriptions or back issues can be sent to:

E-mail: homebase@mothersarewomen.com

Mail: MAW/Homebase, P.O. Box 4104, Station E, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B1 Canada
Phone the MAW-line: 613-722-7851

Back to the top.