A new opening for feminists
Yesterday when I heard that Stephen Harper was suddenly taken with a desire to promote maternal health as the key issue for the G8, I have to admit to being perplexed. I don't think I've ever heard Harper talk about women's issues. Behind the scenes his government, which of course means him, has not only cut funding to most women's groups and the most progressive NGOs like Alternatives and Kairos but have eliminated the word "equality" from their women's bureau. Harper is no doubt that most anti-feminist PM we have ever had.
The media reported that a coalition of NGO's had recommended the issue to Harper but still, when was the last time Harper listened to anyone? Interesting how the media has so far ignored the just published report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that fetal and infant mortality rates are 2.7 times higher in Inuit inhabited areas of Canada than elsewhere. Women's and Indigenous groups should be insisting that Harper put his new commitment to work in his own country too.
At first I thought, more damage control from his proroguing catastrophe. Then, this morning we see Mr. Ignatieff promising that the Liberals will restore funding to women's groups and generalize priorities women's issues. Hopefully that means restoring the idea of a national child care policy. What up? It's been eons since women's issues were at the top of the political agenda.
The article quotes Frank Greaves from Eko Research saying his next poll will show that the traditional gender gap between the Liberals and Tories is re-emerging. Obviously Harper is trying to win back the women's votes he seemed to have had for a while.
There was another election where women's issues came to centre stage in 1984. Polling was getting more sophisticated and the gender gap between the Republicans and Democrats in the US election had become clear. Women were against Reagan. In those days, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women was a powerful organization and the media savvy NAC President at the time, Chaviva Hosek, called for a Leader's Debate on Women's Issues. It actually happened. Watch it if you don't believe me. Not only did Brian Mulroney, John Turner and Ed Broadbent debate women's issues on national television but they did so under questioning from members of the NAC executive rather than journalists. It had an amazing impact by demonstrating the increasing power of the women's movement.
So the moment has come again and it is critical that women's groups and others supporting women's equality move into the discussion to ensure that issues like equal pay, child care and ending violence against women are part of the discussion. There is an opportunity on February 14, the day that vigils and memorials are held across Canada to honour the missing and murdered Aboriginal women, now estimated to be around 500. Another one will come with International Women's Day in and around March 8.
It seems to me the time has come to make sure that women's equality get back on the front burner and stay there. Despite the tremendous advances of the last 40 years, women still earn only 70 percent of male wages. I am convinced most of that is because of the lack of child care and the resistance of corporations and government to end patriarchal forms of functioning that were created for men with wives and that hold on tentatiously excluding many women and the increasing number of men who want to take their parenting responsibilities seriously.
Moreover all levels of government are ominously talking about tightening their belts, which will mean massive cuts to the public service, where the best paid jobs for women are located. They can find money for the banks and the mostly boys on Bay Street but not to protect good jobs for women, let alone expand them. At the municipal level, in Toronto for example, the City is talking about major cuts to childcare.
Despite the rhetoric of the mainstream parties, it will take a revival of a powerful women's movement to make sure that our stalled progress to equality doesn't get driven back. 
Missing and murdered women's vigil last year in Toronto
Politics
Ibis,
I'm sorry to disagree with you, but it was the NDP who has kept woman's issues in front of parliament, not the Liberals.
That said, I have very little faith in the leaders of the three main parties. Harper, Ignatief, and Layton (alphabetical order note). All three of them seem far more interested in ideology than in the best interests of Canada.
My solution is to hold their feet in the fire. Permanently. We can do it, all we have to do is not let up.
Would you trust Harper on Women's Issues?
Yes, women's issues should be brought back to the front of the national agenda.
However, the fact that Stephen Harper is the bearer of this message is like a snake slithering in bearing a golden apple. Would you bite?
The Libs were the first to resurrect women's issues
Your post made it sound as though Ignatieff and the Libs hit upon the idea after Harper made his announcement. With the Pink Book last fall (http://www.liberal.ca/en/blog/16737_introducing-the-pink-book-iii) and statements since then, the Liberal Party identified women as a policy target group long before prorogation was even a glimmer in Stephen's eye.
Harper's Maternal & Child Health Strategy
Thank you very much for this article, Judy. I agree with all you say, here are angles that occurred to me:
1. George W used a women strategy as political cover for his invasion of Afghanistan. It sort of worked, in that for example Hillary as a Senator held hearings in support of Afghani women that didn't say that war was a bad approach, and some though not all US women's groups lent their credibility to the administration. Harper seems to pull a lot from W's playbook.
2. In the article I read, the headline said maternal & child health, but the quote emphasized the children, not the mothers. Ask Harper if he supports "safe motherhood," which the Vatican seems to take as UN code for also making birth control and abortion available to women in developing countries.
3. The non-partisan League of Women Voters long organized US candidate debates, but the TV networks took them away from the LWV and changed the format to limit the debates to only two parties and give them the network spin. If we want Canadian debates in women's hands, we have to have a strategy for the media front.
Yes, Judy! And did you read.....
Excellent post, Judy! Maybe we can seize the moment & make this happen. After all, we all know Mr. Harper has done nothing but harm to Canadian Women, but it wouldn't look good for his Davos image if he didn't redress those issues as Canadian women make them very public.
And I remember that 1984 debate! I thought it was a permanent turning point at the time.
But of course it wasn't - as evidenced by the incredibly sexist editorial in the National Post today. Just referencing it, in case you missed it.:
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2484139
Thanks for this. Sharing widely.
Renewal of powerful women's movement
If you heard The Current last week and read the National Post this week, you know that we still endure a powerful backlash re women's equality/feminism. The question of need for women's studies in universities is the subject of these media coverages, but nevermind the lack of truth and credibility in the stories, what is in the air is just that backlash. What, specifically relating to the diminishment of the women's studies course in our universities right now, can be done on that front. What are women's studies supporters doing about this, since these academic venues provide profound undergirding to the promotion of women's equality.
Yes, that's what we need
And we also need for young women to understand why they need to be feminists. So many either say they don't know what a feminist is, or think that the age when feminism is required has passed.
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