A Report on the NAC AGM

By Christina Comeau

I represented MAW at the annual general meeting of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) in May. Unexpectedly, the NAC AGM was the same weekend as MAW’s AGM, so human resources were limited but Sue Robins, Lisa Menard, Sheree Anne Bradford Lee and I were able to take in some of the activities. Here is a summary of what went on at this year’s gathering.

Opening remarks by outgoing President Joan Grant-Cummings were powerful and inspiring. Though her time as President was tainted by deep funding cuts, making her job very difficult, Joan’s emphasis was about the work in the women’s movement that can be done, even with small budgets and limited resources. An eloquent and passionate speaker, she reminded feminists of the need to work together for issues and not get caught up in the issues; emphasizing the need for groups and individual women to continue networking and keeping communications flowing between women’s organizations and NAC. Joan reminded us all of what grass-roots work can accomplish and encouraged us to keep up the fight regardless of the financial cuts and right-wing agendas.

This year’s AGM also marked a start for the newly-elected President of NAC, Terri Brown . Brown is the first aboriginal woman president of NAC. She is from British Columbia and has worked extensively with Aboriginal Women’s groups and organizations in BC, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories.

There was also a summary report on NAC’s Research Project “From Local to Global.” The research project is using participatory action research, based on how women live with and through social and economic policy change, to measure and evaluate the impact of globalization on women. Findings thus far indicate that for many women on the margin (women of colour, disabled women, Aboriginal women, younger and older women, and those living in poverty) are directly affected by the current changes to public policy. Specifically, changes in labour, education, social and health issues are very much changing how women live in Canada.

One issue NAC is working on is to increase women’s economic and political literacy. Workshops and information from NAC are being developed to help educate women about globalization, and how government cuts and corporate business practices are changing the way the economy works. The next step is to continue linking women’s organizations, strategizing together, and using cross issues to build international solidarity. Each year at the NAC AGM, resolutions are proposed and voted on to help lay a framework on which NAC will operate. As with previous years, one of NAC’s agenda items for the coming year is universal childcare, with a particular focus on ensuring that a national childcare plan comes to fruition. It will be vital for MAW to take a more active role with next year’s NAC resolutions to ensure that women doing paid and unpaid work are included in the provisions. The ground work has been set for this, and MAW needs to continue its efforts.

Other portions of the AGM gave updates on the World March, regional meetings, workshops, and caucus meetings. NAC organizers shut out the National Post and practically every other newspaper due to labour disputes with publisher Conrad Black, hence NAC’s AGM didn’t get much publicity this year.

However, feminism in Canada is still alive and relevant to all Canadian women. Attending the AGM has made me realize there is still much work to be done, and NAC is helping to move issues of equality forward one step at a time.

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Mothers Are Women in Whitby -- How a Chapter Evolved

by Andrea Adair

A desire to have an active role in Mothers Are Women that went beyond reading Homebase was the driving force behind the formation of the Whitby Chapter. And it’s that sense of doing something that keeps the chapter meeting today.

The chapter formed in 1998 after I met a group of women at my neighbourhood park whose lives were similar to mine (each had two children around the age of my two and all were stay at home moms). We talked a lot about mothering issues when we met at the park or got together in our book group. I mentioned MAW in our conversations whenever I could without sounding obsessed. Finally, after five months or so we decided to start a chapter - a branch of MAW outside Ottawa.

As with any new challenge, we faced a few problems when we started. At first, MAW in Ottawa, not having the experience of dealing with chapters, didn’t know what to do with us. But we were a pretty eager group. Some of the women (we started with 7) wanted our group to do “something” and be pro-active - storm our MP’s office, blitz the media about unpaid work, that kind of thing. Lisa Menard, who became our contact in Ottawa, gently suggested we start as a discussion group or book group and asked us to please refrain from speaking to the media on MAW’s behalf until we knew more about what MAW stood for. That bothered some of our group. They wanted to do more than simply discuss issues. Also, some of our members weren’t really keen about the “feminist” part of MAW. We had many discussions about these concerns.

We continued to meet however, and discussed issues such as unpaid work in our own lives. The group really became cohesive and seemed to click when we worked on the workshop section from the Resource Manual on Unpaid Work. Despite that project, however, our group dropped down to three members. That year two members of our group attended the MAW Annual General Meeting in Ottawa, where we had the chance to talk about our role in the organization, how we saw MAW and how MAW saw us. Out of that discussion we felt more confident as a group, and came home and organized a fall workshop.

It was extremely successful. Our theme was Mothering the Mother. We received much needed help and support from MAW members in Ottawa and others in southern Ontario.

Two of our members made presentations before a Commons sub-committee in Toronto on tax reform and the family. They did not represent MAW, but did voice many of the issues which are of concern to MAW. We finally did become pro-active.

After the most recent AGM, amid further discussions of chapters (what they are, what they do), our group volunteered to create an information package to be made available to MAW members who are interested in starting a chapter group of their own. This Chapter Kit is turning out to be a practical guide looking at the herstory of MAW, what chapters do, and lists of discussion topics. We hope to have it completed and sent to the steering committee for comments and suggestions by the end of September.

Since March, we have increased in number to 4 members. Our newest member picked up a Homebase from our local midwife’s office. We have more projects we'd like to work on and look forward to new members joining our group. Like MAW itself, we continue to evolve.

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Montreal’s MAW Chapter Takes Shape

by Catharine Crawford, Pointe Claire, QC

During the summer months, I used a list of Quebec MAW members provided by the Steering Committee to contact women in the Montreal area. It was really exciting for me to talk with women only a short drive from my home about the work of MAW and the possibility of meeting on a regular basis. Our first meeting was September 14 with 3 MAW members in attendance and 3 women who attend Mothering Matters in the West Island of Montreal (a support/discussion group for mothers at home). At our first meeting we shared about our families, our life interests and “otherwork”, and how feminism and mothering intersect in our lives and families. Issues of interest to the women attending include how to be a women’s group without the tendency to value nice-ness over getting things done, and how to carve out and nurture personal spheres for ourselves as home-based women. Next time we hope to bring a book which inspired or influenced us as women and/or mothers. Future meetings will be held on the first Monday of the month, at 1 p.m. Children are welcome. If you live in the Montreal region and would like to join us please contact us by calling:

the MAW line: (613) 722-7851
toll free from outside Ottawa: 1-866-667-6297
or email us at info@mothersarewomen.com.