“On December 17th 2009, sex workers and their allies across Canada will mark the 7th International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This day draws attention to acts of violence that continue to be committed against sex workers worldwide, and to the stigma and discrimination perpetuated by prohibitionist laws against sex work, which endanger our lives and work.” - Rabble.ca

Check out more information at

Rabble.ca
SWOP (American, but with lots of good information)

and learn more about sex workers and sex workers’ rights in general at

Maggie’s (Toronto)
SWAN (American)

Growing up, my mom was always supportive of my career aspirations. When I showed an interest in writing, she bought me notebooks and special pens to encourage me. When I told her I wanted to act, she took me to the National Theatre School a province away to see if it interested me. When I felt visual art was part of my craft, she took me to galleries to show me what was possible. She even bought me my first guitar to explore my musical inclinations.

And through it all, when my activist nature showed through, she explained to me that art can be one of the strongest tools an activist can use to change the world.

This is why I am now a proud “Professional Bohemian” – a writer / actor / musician / artist with activism streaming through everything I do.

She never once tried to convince me to follow her footsteps and become a lawyer/mediator. She knew it wasn’t right for me and knew I had to find my own path to truly be happy and fulfilled.

This seems obvious and normal to me. But not to everyone else.

Yesterday, while checking out Twitter, I noticed a couple of tweets that had gone back and forth between two women I follow. They were discussing the attitudes their parents and cultures had towards certain professions (good and bad) and how that had influenced what they now do.

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There are few jobs in North America where exploitation of gender, race, and class intersect so sharply as in domestic work, where immigrant women from around the world labour in the homes of wealthy families in what are often dismal conditions: low wages, no security, fear of violence and deportation, and overwork. The situation of live-in caregivers (as they’re officially called by the state, erasing the fact that these women work, hard) in Canada briefly made headlines when MP Ruby Dhalla was accused of mistreating Magdalene Gordo and Richelyn Tongso. There has been a lot of academic and activist attention to the struggles of domestic workers in Canada, with groups calling for the elimination of the government program that capitalizes on historically undervalued work and the desperate economic situations of women around the world.

And so it is inspiring to read Lizzy Ratner’s article “The New Domestic Order,” a piece that describes the courage domestic workers in New York City have mustered to fight back against abuses and call for a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, which could be the first of its kind. Women are calling for “severance and overtime pay, advance notice of termination, one day off a week, holidays, healthcare and annual cost of living increases, among other fundamental rights.” Seems pretty basic, huh? Ratner’s article looks at the history of domestic workers’ struggles for rights in the US and outlines the global political economic conditions that compel so many women around the world to migrate to work in other women’s homes. The story is heartbreaking and exhilarating; well worth a read.

Are you a young woman interested in a career in the theatre? If so, then this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss!

Nightwood Theatre, Canada’s National Women’s Theatre, is now accepting applications for apprenticeships in the 2009/2010 Season.

Learn the intricacies of your craft from some of the best in the business, like Nightwood’s Artistic Director Kelly Thornton who I had the chance to interview for Shameless Women.

Here is the info from Nightwood…
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I am not usually one to write on politics, but this headline, “Scandal sidelines ‘high-maintenance’ Liberal MP’” isn’t so much about politics either.

Ruby Dhalla is the first female Sikh MP in Canada, a high profile member of the Liberal Party, and the critic for youth and multiculturalism. At least the article mentions that.

There have been other women and other Sikhs in parliament, just never one who might describe herself in an online personal as “SSF,” because guess what? She’s not married either. Amazingly, the article doesn’t mention Ms Dhalla’s age. Amazing because pretty much every other aspect of her personality, looks, and behavior is put under the microscope.

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Check out this illustrated comparison from traditional women’s magazine Woman’s Day charting the increase in women’s incomes over the last 50 years.

In the 1950s, the average woman earned 14k a year, had a 983 square foot house and craftsman or labourer spouse. Now, the average is 29k, with a post-high school education and a 2349 square foot house. 15k is not actually a huge improvement.

Photo-collage produced by Women’s Day magazine. (Staff (WD))

All these numbers are adjusted for inflation, so in 1950 eggs did not actually cost $5, but by today’s standards that’s what we would be paying for them. It’s a bit confusing, but the idea is that while median incomes appear to have gone up, the cost of goods, services and a bunch of other stuff has gone way down. Welcome to the free market, my friends.

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A recent hot topic out here on the West Coast is a woman who experienced a successful outcome from the human rights tribunal. Hailey de Lessier was awarded $26,000 in compensation for being let go from her job because she told her employers she was pregnant (CBC story here).

“I just [want] to tell other people that this does happen and you can fight it. It’s a long process but you can fight it and you can win your rights,” said de Lisser

What’s most interesting, for me, are the comments on the CBC story. Commentators’ opinions range from placing importance on either the plaintiff or the business, Lessier’s (in)ability to get Employment Insurance (EI), and a woman’s right to work. My favourites are after the jump.

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From our lovely friends over at Power Camp (now Girls Action Foundation!):

Bloggers Wanted!

Kickaction.ca is looking for guest bloggers for our annual Blogging Carnival!

What’s a Blogging Carnival, you ask?

A blogging carnival is when a bunch of bloggers are brought together on one site to write about a given topic, allowing readers to read a variety of outlooks on that issue.

To celebrate the Girls Action Foundation National Day of Action on February 14th, kickaction.ca will be hosting a blogging carnival! The carnival will be four weeks long, between the Day of Action and International Women’s Day, with a theme each week. The themes, based on discussions that came out of the National Retreat in October, will be:

Feb 9-14: Let’s Talk About Sex(ual health)
Feb 16-20: We need to talk!: Race & Gender
Feb 23-27: Indigenous Feminism: Remembering the past, reclaiming the present & celebrating the future
March 2-8: ‘Hypersexualization’, Pop Culture & Media: Who do they think we are?

We would like to have 2-3 guest bloggers each in French & English.

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UNITE HERE, a union that represents workers in the apparel, textile, hotel, and restaurant industries, has just launched a campaign against clothing chain Zara. Zara workers in a downtown Montreal store joined UNITE HERE in 2007 to fight bad working conditions at their store, including unpredictable schedules, short staffing, favouritism by bosses, and disregard for seniority.

According to UNITE HERE, however, Zara has fought back, using tactics that may have violated the Quebec labour code: four workers who supported the union at Zara’s Rockland Mall store were fired in April and May 2008; two workers who led a union drive at Zara’s downtown Montreal store were demoted in August 2007; and management held anti-union meetings at three of their Montreal stores, telling workers that joining a union would be “treason” – in fact, it’s their legal right.

These are old, dirty, anti-labour tricks that need to be stopped, especially in the retail sector, which employs a disproportionate number of young women in low-wage work (see graph below). It takes a lot of guts to fight back against an employer that’s being a bully (I should know, I’ve been on strike against York University for the past six weeks), and these workers need our support.

You can read about the situation here, and take action here. For insight into the retail industry and why unions can make a difference, read this.