Volume 1 Issue Number 2 November/December 2006 Reminders: United BPW Action on BPW Virtual Club First Resolution – July 2006! !" Shannon MacNeil (BPW Virtual Club Membership Chair) with the help of Sue st November 20, 2006 C a l h ou n , 1 Vi ce Presi d ent, National are FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE working on recruitment & retention, Dual th membership motion carried October 6 , 2006 High-level panel recommends women-specific agency !" The Virtual Club is now listed on the BPW BPW Canada commends United Nations panel report Canada Website www.bpwcanada.com The Canadian Federation of Business and Professional !" MSN Messenger – a way to virtually chat – Women's Clubs (BPW Canada) commends the UN High- remember is your job to create a hotmail Level Panel on System-wide Coherence in the Areas of account and download the Messenger software Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and the so that we can communicate Environment, for its recommendation to establish a new !" Resolutions: We need to work on formulating independent women-specific agency at the United Nations. resolutions, as they are our means to The recommendation is included in the Panel's recently- advocating at the political level for change. released report, Delivering as One: Report of the Secretary- For examples see the 2006 Brief submitted by General's High-Level Panel. The Panel was established National: earlier this year by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. http://www.bpwcanada.com/Resolutions/2006- The report states that gender equality is central to the Brief-eng.pdf delivery of effective development outcomes, and recommends the establishment of "one dynamic UN entity focused on gender equality and women's empowerment." BPW Canada, founding member in 1930 of the International Federation of BPW Clubs, passed an emergency resolution at its 2006 biennial convention in Toronto earlier this year, calling on the United Nations to establish such an agency. The resolution also commended Stephen Lewis, Special In This Issue: Envoy to the United Nations on HIV/AIDS, for his efforts to 1. Reminders & United BPW Action on BPW Virtual convince the UN to establish a new agency that would Club First Resolution – July 2006 – pg. 1 specifically defend women's rights, health and security. 2. Editorial: “Beware of Women” pg. 2 The emergency resolution was brought to the floor of the convention by the recently-established BPW Virtual Club, 3. Highlights of Things in the News & Interesting Find one of approximately 45 BPW clubs in Canada. There are on the Internet pg.2 BPW clubs in more than 100 countries around the world. "This recommendation is certainly good news. A new UN 4. SPECIAL FEATURE: Violence Against Women – agency for women is an idea that is long overdue and we pgs 3-4 certainly hope that the agency moves on this issue," said BPW Canada President Fran Donaldson. 5. Member Profile & Member News pg. 5 While the report is addressed to the Secretary-General, it 6. LEAF Breakfast in Sudbury & LEAF Info. pg. 6 notes that many of the recommendations will require commitment from and action by heads of government and 7. Great and Small Accomplishments by Canadian organizations of the wider UN system. "Only through their Women pg. 6 leadership - and the commitment of the incoming Secretary- General - can we realistically forge the consensus and action 8. News Update: CRIAW/MATCH 30th/25th required for a more cohesive UN system," it says. Anniversaries pg. 7 Kofi Annan finishes his term as Secretary-General at the end of this year. 9. Women’s Professional Image – Cassie Campbell pg. 7 10. Song of the Month “They” by JEM pg. 8 [For more information on the ideas of Stephen Lewis see: Gender Equality Now or Never: A New UN Agency for Women. By Paula 11. Thoughts in Verse: “A Feminist” pg. 8 Donovan, Senior Advisor, Women’s and Children’s Issues – Office of the UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa – July 2006] Editorial: “Beware of Women” Highlights of Things in the News Lately in the media women have been making headlines and many questions have been raised. From the !" New Liberal Women’s Caucus ‘Pink Book’ funding cuts to women’s agencies to the questionable “dog Check it out and see what it contains – what comment” in the House of Commons. Women with any are you comments, thoughts, questions? degree of power are being analyzed, reviewed, assessed and picked apart. Did a certain reference get made, and if !" Status of Women Cuts – What can we do? so was it against the woman in question or women in How can we ensure that our voices are heard? general? Do certain ministers understand the plight of We need to start writing letters about the cuts women? Is the government doing all it can for women? and the slated closings! Also BPW National is doing press releases on our position and My focus in this issue is on the touchy subject of the urging letter writing. There are going to be view of women who hold public roles in society. Women hearings of the Standing Committee on the only make up approximately 21% of the members of our Status of Women House of Commons government and it seems that all too often they are Committee and BPW will ensure a brief is analyzed far beyond their public role. Granted one of the presented as well. women’s movement’s arguments has been “the personal is political”, but that does not mean that an assessment of a !" View of women in politics, in business…see woman in public life must always include her private life editorial and throughout key question to ask: too. For instance, the September 30th, 2006 edition of the How can we change attitudes? Ottawa Citizen carried an article “Stronach slams ‘inaccurate’ attacks” with a picture of her in the middle of !" Check out this interesting site: a web of people she’s connected too including friends, http://www.thewomenareangry.org lovers etc. While the blame cannot be completely put on the media, shouldn’t the real concern be on whether the Interesting Find on the Internet – individual is adequately meeting and maintain her Irene Mathyssen – M.P. London-Fanshawe (NDP) responsibilities as a public figure? From there we can ask website: “5 Things Feminism Has Done For Me” questions such as: Should we hold our public officials to a higher moral standard? Should their private lives be any 1) Though there still is a long way to go – concerns to us? In the reverse would we be willing to feminism helped me and other women realize have our private lives on display? that we did not have to settle for the job ghetto. This kind of media treatment is not new. Key public women such as Marie Antoinette, Queen Elizabeth, and 2) Gave me the courage to stand up when Margaret Thatcher had to put up with much the same someone tried to play the gender game and thing. It seems that women have yet to reach the ‘critical attempt to demean my abilities and my mass’, especially in Canadian politics, where their intellect. presence is no longer so strange as to focus primarily on their public actions versus their private lives. 3) Made it possible for my daughter to pursue her dreams and achieve more than I have been Women need to engage in politics in an increased able to achieve. number so that the focus can change. And all of us need to help refocus the role of our elected officials - when the 4) Helped inspire me to make my voice heard in media tries to sensationalize an irrelevant issue we can and the public sphere. Today, as the Member of should take them to task and ask them to focus on the Parliament, I am able to help others make actual job at hand. The same goes for those elected their voices heard as well. representatives who allow themselves to get drawn into the ‘soap opera’ drama. 5) Establish that a woman’s body is her own. Ensured that I would have choice if I were So let’s get back the proper focus! ever faced with an unwanted pregnancy and that I would not be re-victimized by the justice This issue also focuses strongly on violence against system if I were raped. women and I urge you to read and comment on the Special Feature on this topic! [source: http://irenemathyssen.ca/?p=470 To read other Canadians contributions All topics discussed and reported are open for comment http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/ ] and are hoped to encourage discussion, discussion that will lead to positive action and positive change – please engage in any one of the topics herein! - Crystal SPECIAL FEATURE: Violence Against Women Article As December 6th, 2006 approaches women we are once again reminded to take time and remember those women who have lost their lives to violence. All over Canada on this day memorials will be held, memorials that started in remembrance of the 14 young women at École Polytechnique who died in 1989. This section is dedicated to those women and women who have been lost on account of violence. It is also dedicated to those of us still living in this world who are ruled by fear on account of the threat of violence. As noted later on in this article while much has changed much remains the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya same: Anna Politkovskaya – Russian journalist, 48, “renowned for her probes of the brutality of Russia’s military National Business Woman/ March 1974 [American] campaign in Chechnya as well as the banality of p.24-25 [MG31-K7 Volume 22 File #18] corruption permeating Russian life, from the remote “rape” provinces to the bright lights of Moscow….was shot twice…authorities described the attack as contract killing, “Women live according to a rape schedule, whether which they said was carried out by a young man dressed in they realize it or not.