Women News

Status of Women Canada will focus its support on projects that address its 2008-2009 funding priorities: women’s economic security and prosperity (with a focus on financial literacy); women’s leadership development; women’s safety; and eliminating all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls.

Spain's re-elected Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced a government Saturday which for the first time included more women than men and a female defence minister.

Brent Jessop - Knowledge Driven Revolution.com - December 24, 2007

"We must have population control at home, hopefully through changes in our value system, but by compulsion if voluntary methods fail." - Paul Ehrlich, 1968 (pXI)

The previous two articles in this series described some of the compulsory techniques for controlling population growth in America and the third world proposed by Paul Ehrlich in his 1968 book, The Population Bomb*. What about changing our value system into something more compatible with Ehrlich's mindset? How do you change a societies value system?

CBC Overnight aired a panel discussion on this topic and told both of the numbers of women drafted into prostitution. How will open borders exasperate this activity? OPEN BORDERS RAISE CONCERNS IN W. EUROPE BRUSSELS -- Nine new countries joined the passport-free Schengen travel zone today, easing trade and travel but raising fears in some quarters that crime syndicates and terrorists will find it easier to reach Western European capitals. The expansion creates a vast region of 1.4 million square miles and 400 million inhabitants in which residents can move freely from country to country much as Americans move from state to state. Membership will be an economic boon to the eight formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe plus Malta, which will find it easier to sell goods or seek jobs in the wealthier West. But police and other officials worry that because many of the new countries lie on important crime, human trafficking and illegal alien routes, the Schengen expansion will make those activities harder to curb.

The Centre de développement femmes et gouvernance established through the participation of the governments of Canada and Quebec QUEBEC, Dec. 19 /CNW Telbec/ - The Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, and the Honourable Christine St-Pierre, Quebec Minister of Culture, Communications and Status of Women, today announced their financial contribution to the creation of the Centre de développement femmes et gouvernance (Centre for Development of Women in Governance) initiated by the Groupe Femmes, Politique et Démocratie, in collaboration with the Ecole nationale d'administration publique (ENAP). "The Government of Canada is pleased to support projects like the Centre de développement femmes et gouvernance, which will prepare women to take on key decision-making roles," said Minister Verner. "By ensuring they have the skills, resources and supports they need to fully engage in the democratic process, we are helping to promote women's full participation in the economic, social and cultural life of the country."

Poverty a barrier to drug abuse treatment: expert Updated Sun. Nov. 25 2007 10:09 PM ET The Canadian Press EDMONTON -- A lack of child care, poverty and pregnancy are often barriers to women who need treatment for drug, alcohol or tobacco addictions, a national substance abuse conference heard Sunday. Nancy Poole, a researcher for the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women in Vancouver, told more than 100 delegates at the conference's opening session that women need specialized harm reduction and treatment programs to meet their unique needs, Poole said. "A huge obstacle was the lack of recognition for the need for women-specific and women-centred responses and real commitment to action on that," she said.

Building jobs await, but it's tough to attract women CanWest News Service Published Saturday November 24th, 2007 OTTAWA - Georgette Lavallee weighs all of 103 pounds, but has no problem hoisting boxes of hardwood flooring or an industrial-sized vacuum cleaner. Lavallee had a Grade 6 education and worked at a variety of jobs before an employment agency sent her to Tamarack Homes four years ago. She's been working for the Ottawa builder ever since and has become the site safety supervisor. "I'm never bored," says Lavallee. Moneca Kaiser was 28 and had been a philosophy student before she decided to train as a carpenter, a process that took three years of apprenticeship. Kaiser now has a design/build business and does renovations and additions, including kitchens, bathrooms and decks. She also teaches at a building arts and trades school in Vermont. "The first time I taught a woman to use a circular saw, she said: 'This is why men don't get depressed!' Building is satisfying and empowering," says Kaiser. "You clean and it's messy again. You cook and it's eaten. You build a house, and it's there forever."

Employment Insurance system short-changing women, study finds By Colin Perkel, THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO - Canadian women are being unfairly shortchanged by the country's Employment Insurance system, which was made more restrictive a decade ago and now boasts a multibillion-dollar surplus, a recent study concludes. The study for the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, to be released Thursday, finds the qualification requirements for EI have left many women who lose their jobs out of pocket despite having paid their fair share of premiums. In fact, the study finds, as many as two in three working women who pay into EI don't receive a penny in benefits if they lose their jobs.

The Backlash! - April 1996 Androphobia: The only respectable bigotry The mythology of male brutishness by Robert Anton Wilson -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Did you know that over 98 per cent of the men in the United States today have never been convicted of any violent crime or served time in prison? That, even though the U.S. imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any other nation, over 98 per cent of our men have never been convicted of rape, child molestation, assault, battery, breaking and entering, or any kind of violence? And almost half of the men who do land in prison are convicted of non-violent crimes (usually drug possession)? These basic statistical facts about male nonviolence have been hidden from us by an ideology/mythology which I call androphobia -- fear and hatred of the male. Androphobia has also hidden such facts as these: Important Feminists of the past include such males as Clarence Darrow, John Stuart Mill, Henrik Isben, Robert Dale Owen, James Joyce, and Bertrand Russell.

Men get better hospital care than women: report Older women face greater risk of death in ICU, study finds Margaret Munro, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, November 15, 2007 Older women with heart failure and other critical conditions receive less life support and die more than men in intensive care units, according to a disturbing new Canadian study. This difference was most pronounced among women over age 50, who were 32-per-cent less likely than men to be admitted to intensive care units. They were also nine-per-cent less likely than men to receive mechanical ventilation to assist breathing and 20-per-cent less likely to receive pulmonary artery catheters to monitor failing hearts. They were also more likely to die.

Arctic homelessness hardest on women, Ottawa should help:study November 14, 2007 - 16:32 Bob Weber, THE CANADIAN PRESS Lyda Fuller heard a heartache's worth of sad stories as she interviewed northern women about how hard it is to find a home for themselves and their children, but one comment was particularly chilling. "I've thought about hiring someone to beat me up so I can stay at the women's shelter," one Iqaluit woman says in the study of Canada's three Arctic territories. "I know it sounds crazy, but that's what desperation does to your mind when you have no place to go." Adequate housing is scarce all over the North, but the study released Wednesday by several women's organizations says it's women and their children who suffer most.

Nov 13, 2007 10:58 ET The Government of Canada Helps Single Mothers With Supportive Housing and Educational Opportunities HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 13, 2007) - The Government of Canada today announced that it is providing federal homelessness funding for new supportive housing for single mothers who are undertaking further education. This funding of $415,965 is enabling the YWCA of Halifax to purchase a small apartment building in Halifax, where young single mothers will be provided with supportive housing and services while they undertake post-secondary education.

Canada slips from 14th to 18th place in world rankings on gender equality Frank Jordans, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published Thursday November 8th, 2007 GENEVA - Canada has slipped a little compared with the rest of the world in providing gender equality, according to a study by the World Economic Forum released Thursday. The annual study ranking 128 countries found Canada had slipped four spots to 18th place compared with last year. Nordic countries received the best marks for gender parity in education, employment, health and politics. Sweden, which has more women then men holding high public office, topping the list. It was following in order by Norway, Finland and Iceland.

Nov 07, 2007 04:30 AM Antonia Zerbisias Two hundred bucks. That's about how much federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's Halloween mini-budget will put back in my pocket at tax time. But it won't stay there for long. No, I am not going to drop it in a cross-border shopping spree. The price of gas – in a year of record oil company profits in an already heavily subsidized industry – hardly makes it worth the drive. Besides, the soaring dollar is already hurting Canadian retailers, including the indie merchants I patronize in my 'hood because it's ultimately good for my community – and real estate values. Even another percentage point drop in the GST, as promised for Jan. 1, won't save them.

Government of Canada Announces New Call for Proposals for Women's Projects November 1, 2007 OTTAWA - The Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, today announced a second call for proposals to solicit funding from the Women's Community Fund of Status of Women Canada. The new call invites eligible organizations to access funding from the overall $15.3 million Women's Program budget of Status of Women Canada. "Our Government is working to advance women's participation in the economic, social and cultural life of Canada and we are doing so at record levels of funding," Minister Verner said. "We are eager to work with groups that will have a direct, positive impact on women in their communities." Status of Women Canada will focus its support on projects that promote women's economic security and prosperity, health, safety and those aimed at ending all forms of discrimination and violence against women. As a condition of eligibility for funding, projects must support the advancement of all women in Canada. The first call for proposals was issued on June 4, 2007. On October 11, 2007, Minister Verner announced that 60 projects will receive funding totalling $8 million through the Women's Program of Status of Women Canada.