The Pride Toronto Dyke March Committee invites all members of the
women's and trans' LGBTTIQQ2S communities to come hear from, and vote
for, this year's unstoppable Honoured Dyke and Honoured Group
nominees.
Presentations and voting will take place at the Pride Toronto General
Meeting:
TUESDAY, APRIL 3rd, 7pm, 519 COMMUNITY CENTRE
Additionally, voting will be open April 3rd from 4pm to 6pm at the
Pride Office 65 Wellesley Street East, Suite 501.
In the scheduling of the Honoured Dyke and Honoured Group voting,
Stephanie and I were late to recognize that April 3rd is a day of
celebration for the Jewish Community. We sincerely apologize for this
oversight, and hope that the additional afternoon voting period will
allow those who attend Seder an opportunity to participate in the selection
process. As always, please let us know if there any questions or concerns.
Both the Pride Office and the 519 Community Centre are accessible spaces
for people with mobility dis/abilities.
Child care will not be provided, but children are welcome to attend.
This is a trans positive space.
The rally and march haven't happened in Toronto yet, but Internation Women's Day did bring some fun surprises.
The members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) who spent International Women's Day in Status of Women Minister Bev Oda's constituency office say it was a day well spent.
"Since Minister Oda didn't ask us to celebrate International Women's Day
with her, we decided to invite ourselves," says PSAC Regional Executive
Vice-President for Ontario Gerry Halabecki, one of the members installed in
the office. "We felt she needed to hear first hand how the Harper government
is failing women." - PSAC
One reporter called International Women's Day "Beat Up on Bev Oda Day."
International Women's Day became Beat Up On Bev Oda Day, as politicians and advocacy groups lined up to blast the Conservative cabinet minister for cuts and mandate changes at Status of Women Canada.
Oda's constituency office in Bowmanville, Ont. was occupied for several hours Thursday by members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada protesting the moves.
A day earlier, Oda had announced a $5-million increase in grants the agency distributes for women's projects. The money amounts to a redirection of a $5-million cut to Status of Women's administrative budget last September, resulting in the closure of 12 of 16 regional offices on April 1. - Canada.com
I somehow missed the news that Oda had given the $5 million back in a ideologically-based apology. "Equality" hasn't been added back into the language of women's programs and the grants still can't be used for advocacy. It must go to band-aid solutions, not sociological change. Nice.
In Iran, women were arrested in clash with police on IWD:
Iranian police and activists clash on women's day
I feel bad. I'm not doing anything remotely women-positive today: International Women's Day. And there's this curious thing called "Blog Against Sexism Day" which I don't quite understand. How does blogging one way or another do anything when you only do it on a specific day?
It's like telling people: "Today is talk all about your mother day." What does that mean? Why would I do it today and not tomorrow? Is this day at all useful?
Given that my blog is about blogging against sexism, I think I'll pass on the "celebration" of blogging against sexism.
As for IWD, that seems more understandable to me. It's not really every day that you get to rally.
In Toronto, though, today has no rally or march. It's on Saturday. I'm assuming that's so everyone can attend. Unless you work weekends, like many minimum wage earners do. Then, well, I guess you're not coming.
Interestingly, one of the platforms of this year's march is increasing the minimum wage to $10. Something Ontario should really be doing anyway.
For those looking to go to the march, here's the info:
The International Women's Day (IWD) Toronto Committee and Women Working with Immigrant Women are pleased to announce the 29th Annual International Women's Day March & Rally on Saturday, March 10, 2007. The day begins with the IWD 2007 Rally at 11:00 am (Toronto, OISE Auditorium, Bloor St. W. & St. George subway) proceeding with the IWD 2007 March at 1:00 pm through Toronto's downtown core and concluding with the IWD 2007 Fair at 1:30-4:30 pm (Ryerson's University Student Centre).
So, do we think that the march is going to send Harper back to the drawing board with the cuts to Status of Women Canada? Do we think the minimum wage is going to go up? Do we think peace will reign? Of course none of us do. But getting together to show our strength, size and commitment might just boost the morale. I think that's all that matters.
Heather Mallick has written a great piece on women writers in American magazines. About a year ago, I noticed this trend when reading The Atlantic. Where are the women writers?
Mallick's article unveils a surprising disinterest amongst editors of the big "liberal" magazines in the US to make the effort to include a more diverse group of writers.
I can't say I'm surprised.
Last year, an American website, WomenTK, began tracking the ratio of male to female writers in Harper's, The Atlantic, The NYT Magazine, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Arguably, the ratio should be more or less one to one because that's what life is like. As it turned out:
* Vanity Fair 2.7:1.
* The New Yorker 4.1:1.
* The Atlantic 3.6:1.
* Harper's 6.9:1 (118 male bylines, only 17 female). Fully six of its 12 issues from September '05 to August '06 had one or no female writers.
The numbers, as Ruth Davis Konigsberg of WomenTK writes, prove Ursula K. Le Guin's remark that “when women speak more than 30 per cent of the time, men perceive them as dominating the conversation.”
The excerpt above is taken from rabble.ca's republishing of Mallick's article which originally ran on CBC.ca.
For a thorough analysis of The Atlantic, Harpers, New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker and Vanity Fair and women writers go to:
WomenTK.
Champion of women's rights, Doris Anderson, a former Toronto Star columnist and editor of Chatelaine magazine died of cancer yesterday.
Anderson and her team of writers looked at everything from abortion to sexism and made it appealing to everyone from the "prairie housewife to the Toronto sophisticate," Landsberg said. "She brought forward all the key issues for women and made them palatable and understandable ... To her, equality just made sense. It was a question of human rights and fairness."
Anderson had a profound impact on the face of Canadian feminism.
She agitated for the creation of a Royal Commission on the Status of Women through the 1960s. That commission's report eventually launched Canada's feminist revolution. - Toronto Star
