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The When Women Count Project

Over the past number of years, Mothers Are Women has played a central role in advocacy efforts to have unpaid domestic labour, including family and elder care, counted in the 1996 Census of Population, national accounts and other statistical measures used in Canada.

MAW has also worked steadily to provide grassroots public education on the issue of unpaid work bringing the issue to light whenever and wherever possible. This included public workshops and speaking engagements, as well as our Kitchen Table Revolution newsletters and a Getting Counted workshop kit designed especially for the 1996 Census.

Now that Statistics Canada has gathered unpaid work data from the 1996 Census, the issue is no longer just about recognition through measurement, but also HOW the information will be used for women's equality. There is no guarantee that women's unpaid work will figure automatically into government decision making.

As MAW has maintained throughout our advocacy on this issue, women and women's organizations need to be involved directly in the analysis, development, implementation and monitoring of policies which directly affect the paid and unpaid work women do in society.

MAW hopes that its When Women Count Project will provide both a forum and vehicle for continued grassroots involvement and leadership on this issue.

The When Women Count Project had the following objectives:

to encourage other national and grassroots women's groups to integrate an analysis and understanding of unpaid work issues into their own advocacy work;

to provide a forum for women's organizations to discuss, analyse and develop strategies concerning unpaid work and public policy;

to facilitate the development by women and women's organizations of a strategic response to the release of the statistics in March 1998 and to begin lobbying efforts for more comprehensive measurement of unpaid work;

to continue to provide information to women on the issue of unpaid work as an issue of women's social and economic equality in an accessible public education format;

to continue to apply the Platform For Action signed by Canada at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing to the status of women in Canada and hold the Canadian Government accountable to its international commitments.

To meet these objectives, the Project included:

1) When Women Count Working Group
The Working Group brought together a core group of 12 national women's organizations to exchange information and resources on the issue of unpaid work. The group was made up of diverse and representative women's organizations, groups and activists committed to working within feminist/social justice framework.

The group began the process of identifying public policy areas and public education needs which were discussed at the Symposium. The group will also be exploring strategies for future action.

2) When Women Count Symposium
The national Symposium was held from October 17th to 18th, 1997. The 25-30 groups invited were selected by the Working Group. The Symposium was envisioned as a forum in which these women's groups could begin to bring forward a concrete analysis of unpaid work and public policy.

The objective of the Symposium was to influence and change public policy toward the recognition and integration of unpaid work and those who do it as a significant productive economic variable in all policy decision-making. A variety of issues (for example, economic security, workfare, training programs, health care reform, care giving of all forms, and formal and informal volunteer work) formed the focus of a full day of workshops. Options for future strategies and action, especially in relation to the release of the unpaid work statistics, were explored. Symposium Proceedings are now available.

3) When Women Count Resource Manual
The Manual is a substantive contribution to the literature on unpaid work and takes the issue to the 2001 Census of Population. It provides accessible information to grassroots women and women's organizations on unpaid work issues and combines workshop and individual exercises with background material and analysis, interviews and features on specific issues within unpaid work: a companion bibliography on unpaid work is also available.

The Manual builds on the work of the Working Group and Symposium. Women need to have available to them information that is accessible, comprehensive, speaks to their experiences, recognizes their contribution and their concerns and encourages their participation in social debate and political activism.

The When Women Count Project is funded by Women's Program, National Office, Status of Women, Canada

For more information about the When Women Count Project or to order a copy of either the Symposium Proceedings or the When Women Count Resource Manual contact Mothers Are Women.

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