Table of Contents

The following articles are available for reading on-line:

Editorial

MAW Report

Politically Speaking

 Dear Homebase - an expanded edition of letters from our readers

The remaining articles in list form: Toronto Discussion Group; Radical Reading Report; Greenspace - These Lands are Your Lands, These Lands are My Lands; Awakenings - A Week in the "Real" World; Herbs 'n Stuff - Tea; Notes from a Broad - Newsflash: Superwoman Undergoes Mid-Course Correction; Mommy Clothes; Poem: These tools called our hands; A Page to Call Home; Life Outside the Box; The Moony Swing; Poem: The Gift of Children; Off the Wall: Kid Kaos; Forum on Humour; Power of the Pen - Breastfeeding Battles; Feedback: The Value of our Work

Editorial

Lisa Menard

MAW Report

by Sonya Nigam and Sue Robins

What's New

With all the publicity we have been receiving lately we thought it would be a good time to boost our membership. Please note that up until June 15th, 1999, you can purchase a gift membership for the special price of $5 (for gifts outside Canada it is $10 US). With this special offer we hope to double our membership. Mother’s Day is almost here. Don’t delay! The offer will expire before you know it.

....to boldly go where no other Canadian mothers’ feminist group has gone before....

On March 1st, 1999, our MAW email "political" discussion group transformed from a loosely knit ‘cc’ list with an unofficial name to the (drum roll please): Virtual Kitchen Table (VKT) list on the bonafide automated list server system, Onelist. In true MAW fashion, proposals were written and votes were tabulated, as we planned our surge forward into cyberspace.

We currently have 32 VKT subscribers, from small town interior BC, to the big lights of Toronto (and everywhere in between!). VKT provides a great way to meet other MAW members, keep up writing and debating chops (à la karate) by contributing to ‘threads’ or email discussions, and to stay informed about MAW and media happenings between issues of Homebase. Previous email list experience is not required!

We invite you to join VKT for provocative and feisty discussion: please email <info@mothersarewomen.com> ...you must be a MAW member in good standing, and agree to our MAW list rules. Our volume varies wildly (depending if the subject of certain politicians comes up!), but there is a ‘digest’ option available with our mailing list to help manage the volume. So, contact us to be beamed on board! 

In December 1998, Ottawa MAW member and therapist, Kaye-Lee Pantony and Homebase editor, Lisa Menard, convened the first meeting of the MAW Social Club (Ottawa). At its fourth meeting in March, members were so numerous and noisy that they had to move tables in order not to drown out the live entertainment. At its fifth meeting in April, someone came up with the idea of calling it the Cake and Beer Club. During this meeting, the Club reached the height of organization when Kaye-Lee happened to ask our server if it was possible to book a booth on a regular basis. Well, by the end of the evening the official reservation book was out and we have carved out a spot for the second Thursday of every month, at 7:30 pm, at Patty’s Pub (1186 Bank St.). All MAW members are welcome, no need to call ahead – bring a friend the first time if you’re shy! 

(1) Research and Lobby: With the Parliamentary gaffe by the Junior Finance Minister, coupled with minister Hedy Fry’s insights, the Reform party’s political tactics, the Bev Smith case and the media reported "mommy wars", March was a record breaking month for media interviews. Aside from the energy that was required to deal with this attention, we have also been doing other work which has centred around the Census questions, Beijing +5, and the beginning stages of a joint project with the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) and the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL). For further details please see the KTR insert of this issue. 

(2) When Women Count Resource Manual: Yes, the manuscript is complete and is being type set. The launch is set for June 14th on Parliament Hill. 

(3) MAW Discussion Groups: The Ottawa morning and evening discussion groups continue to meet regularly. Discussion groups outside the Ottawa area also continue to meet. There are MAW members interested in starting discussion groups in the following areas: Halifax (NS), Montreal (QC), Vancouver Area (BC), Ingersoll (ON) and Ottawa West (ON). If you would like to find out if there is one in your neck of the woods, or if you would like to start one, please contact us and we will see what we can do to help. 

MAW is in need of volunteers for the following positions: 

Membership Co-ordinator to maintain our member database and print mailing labels for Homebase. Must be live in the Ottawa-area and use a PC. 

Advertising Representative needed to build and maintain an advertising portfolio for Homebase. This position is the only remunerated position at Homebase, call for more details of this opportunity. 

If you are interested in any of these positions please contact us:

Politically Speaking

From the Kitchen Table to the United Nations:
The Fundamental Justice of counting women’s Unpaid Work

by Evelyn Drescher

In May 1997, Beverley Smith presented a unique challenge to the Canadian government. In a letter to Mrs. Mongella, Assistant Secretary General for the Commission on the Status of Women, Smith charged that the Canadian government discriminated against homemakers. She cited various federal government policies as they affect women who do unpaid work in the home, including especially child care, ranging from discrimination in economic security and pension issues, to lack of access to training programs when seeking paid employment , to the penalties imposed on women as "dependents" within the taxation system. Her charge of discrimination was first considered at the 42nd Meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, but was deferred for full consideration at the 43rd meeting in 1999. The 43rd meeting was also the meeting scheduled to review the Beijing Platform for Action paragraphs on the measurement and valuation of unremunerated work.

Beverley Smith took an extraordinary step as an independent activist working on the issue of the status of women at home for the last twenty years. However, her allegation of discrimination is made on the basis of human rights.

The argument that women’s unwaged work is a human rights issue has been made by Marilyn Waring in Three Masquerades: Politics, Work and Human Rights (1996). Waring has searched the relevant United Nations documents – for example, the Convention on the Elimination of all form of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC) – for some sense of how "work" is defined in international law and of what potential use human rights jurisprudence might be in having unpaid work understood as Work. Waring has asked how women’s unwaged work fits into the guarantee of cultural and economic rights for women. By demonstrating that the mechanisms are already in place at the UN to pursue this issue as a legitimate human rights issue, Waring calls us to action to first try domestic legal remedies in securing a definition of work which includes unwaged work, and. failing that, to test the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Waring’s challenge is hinged on the logic that to be discriminated against on the basis of "work status" violates a woman’s human rights. If unpaid work is categorized as work, then women who do unpaid work must be accorded the same rights as is accorded those who do paid work. Waring cleverly asks, if unpaid work is not defined as Work, then what is it defined as? She finds three possible answers: leisure, slavery or servitude. Each of these must be rejected in defining unpaid work. The suggestion that unpaid work is leisure is untenable. If it is slavery or servitude then serious human rights issues are raised. The question for domestic and international law is, "what is the legal definition of work?"

Although Beverley Smith’s letter of complaint is less developed and pointedly articulated, the same principle objection underlies it. This is why, rather than brushing off the letter of a Calgary homemaker, the UN Commission on the Status of Women took the complaint seriously.

The Beverley Smith Complaint was heard by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 1999. The Canada Government responded with a lengthy defense of Canadian tax, pension, and other family-related policies, and an assertion of fair and equitable treatment within these systems, concluding:

The Communication to the United Nations coincided with the regular work of the CSW assessing the implementation and further strategies related to unremunerated work in the area of Institutional Mechanisms on the advancement of women in the Beijing Platform for Action (PFA). For a brief time, public attention in Canada was turned both domestically and internationally to the issue of unpaid caregiving. This interest, and corresponding calls for fair taxation, sparked public debate sufficient to motivate the Finance Minister to strike a House of Commons Subcommittee to examine Canada’s tax and transfer system as it applies to families with dependent children. The Subcommittee is committed to hearing from select government departments, tax and policy experts, families, organizations, and activists. Sonya Nigam, on behalf of MAW, made a submission to this subcommittee on April 29, 1999.

Evelyn Drescher is policy consultant for Mothers Are Women, and coordinator of the When Women Count Working Group.

Editor’s note: The following article was written for the When Women Count Resource Manual which was released on the 14th of June, 1999. It’s so good we wanted to share a little of this excellent resource with you! If you wish to purchase a copy of the manual please send your name and address with a cheque or money order for $30 (or $20 if you’re a MAW member) to: Mothers Are Women, P.O. Box 4104, Stn. E, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B1 Canada.

Homebase Magazine 1997 ©

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