Volume V, Number 3, 1978 Editorial
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Branching Out Canadian magazine for women Volume V Numbers 1978 $1.25 Environment Issue Subscribe! Branching Out Now in its Fifth Year Gift Specials: for $1.00 extra your gift card will also include a Branch Out! button with our tree logo on it. Please send: ..... 6 issues ($6.00)* Please send: ..... 6 issues ($6.00)* ..... 12 issues ($11.00)* ..... 12 issues ($11.00)* of Branching Out to: of Branching Out to: Name ..................................... Name ..................................... Address ................................... Address ................................... City ...................................... City ...................................... Province .................... Postal Code . Province .................... Postal Code . Payment enclosed ............ Please bill me Payment enclosed ............ Please bill me Include a Branch Out! button: ..... Include a Branch Out! button: ..... Make cheque or money order payable to Branching Out Box 4098, Edmonton, Alberta T6E 4S8 *Add $1.00 per year for U.S.A., $2.00 per year overseas. Branching Out Columns 2 editorial Linda Duncan Editor Sharon Batt 3 letters Business Manager 4 printed matter Elaine Butler Environment Theme Editor 30 law Linda Duncan The Forgotten Offenders Mary Ellen Gillan Contributing Editors and Brenda J. Thomas Helen Corbett, Diana Palling 38 books Editorial Departments Books: Aritha van Herk Some Thoughtful Tales Rebecca Smith Fiction: Anne O'Grady, Helen Rosta, New Arrivals, Old Problems Julia Berry Joanne Ellison, Marion Thorn Bitterness and Regret Aritha van Herk Film: Margaret Cooper Photography: Diana Palling Livesay Distorted Mary Lee Morton Printed Matter: Sharon K. Smith Oh Julia! Sharon Ban Design Changing Lives Joanne Hedenstrom Brenda Phleger, Diana Palling, Romantic Conventions Catherine McQuaid Irene Klar More Books Other Staff This Issue Thora Cartlidge, Sharon Domier, 46 film Joanne Hatton, Diane Walton Outrageous! Joanne Hatton Board of Directors An Unmarried Woman Jane Dick Dallas Cullen, Halyna Freeland, Kris Purdy, Sharon Batt, Elaine Butler, Annetle Henderson, Mary Lee Morton Features: Women and Environment 8 Ecological Decision Making Janet Dunbrack 12 Urban Sprawl: The Price Gerda R. Wekerle and Women Pay Novia Carter 'Copyright 1978 by the New Women's Magazine Society. 15 One Woman's Journey Edmonton. Alberta. All rights reserved. Unless used in a Sylvia Porter review, the reproduction of this work in any form, by any 16 The Castle Revisited Lynn Hannley and means, including photocopying, recording, information storage and retrieval systems, et cetera, is forbidden without Marsha Mitchell the express permission of the publisher. 26 Trial Balloon Gerda Wekerle, Rebecca Branching Out is published every two months by the New Women's Magazine Society, a Canadian Charitable Peterson and DavidMorley Organization. Editorial office located at 8631 - 109 Street. 35 The People's Republic Wendy Danson and Edmonton. Alberta. Phone (403| 433-4021. Published with assistance from Alberta Culture, the Alberta Linda Duncan Law Foundation and Canada Councij. Send all correspondence to Box 4098. Edmonton. Alberta. T6E 4S8. Submissions should be typed, double-spaced and accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We review unsolicited manuscripts from Canadian women only. Fiction, Poetry and Art Subscription rates in Canada. $6.00 per year. $11.00 for two years for individuals: S10.00 per year. $20.00 for two years 7 Poetry Afternoon Epiphany Darlene Quaife for institutions. Add $1.00 per year for U.S. rates. S2.00 per 18 Fiction The Fat Lady Anne Porter Paris year for overseas rales. Advertising rates available on request. 22 Poetry Audrey Canard Back issues of Branching Out are available on microfilm from Micromedia Ltd.. Box 34. Station S. Toronto 23 Art Thelma Manarey M5M 4L6. The magazine is on file with the International 34 Poetry Isabel Huggan Women's History Archive housed at the Special Collection Library. Northwestern University. Evanston. (L 60201. Branching Out is a member of the Canadian Periodical by Cathy Hobart Publishers' Association. The magazine is indexed in the cover: "Matinee" Canadian Periodical Index. serigraph, 20" x 20".. 1976. Typesetting by Superior Typesetting Ltd. Printed by Alpine Press. Edmonton. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3517. Volume V. Numbers. 1978. ISSN 0382 - 5264 Volume V, Number 3, 1978 editorial Environment and ecology are for disappeared. People are now simply Few women hold positions of authority most people words from the 60's when looking in different directions. Many and thus as a group we have no direct affinity for the land, the sea and wildlife groups, whether their concern is input into decisions about construction was "in." The prolific "Ban the Bomb" construction of highrises or battering of of nuclear power plants, expropriation and "Let it be" posters, buttons and women, are becoming conscious of deep of housing for expansion of roadways or bumper stickers have long since had rooted but subtle underlying reasons for development of land without provision their slogans replaced by other, trendier the planning and development decisions of social services or amenities. Women sayings. Now unless you subscribe to in their neighbourhoods and on a clearly are not only suffering the Mother EarthCatalogue, Nature Canada national scale. One factor becoming consequences of bad planning decisions or Harrowsmith chances are unlikely you clear is the role of women. but have few voices speaking on their will encounter any stories of back to the Why the emphasis on women and behalf. The response to letters we sent earth or cleaning up the environment. the environment? It is true, all people to people working on a professional and One could readily surmise that any suffer from pollution, overcrowding, volunteer basis in all parts of Canada public interest in nature and poor public transit and high housing tells us they have discovered special surroundings had disappeared along costs. But women are especially heavy needs and talents in women. They are with Haight Ashbury. losers. Falling at the bottom of the finding that women have unique While I confess these topics are no economic ladder women are left with information and experiences which must longer popular, interest and concern few choices of shelter, particularly be explored. about our surroundings has not when they are single parents or widows. International Women's Year has come and gone. The ecology movement has lost some of its bite. But just because governments have cut off their token support for shelters for battered women and people are tired of hearing about the Berger Commission does not make the problems go away. I hope the articles published here will encourage you to participate in the search for new solutions. by Linda Duncan New Column In this issue we introduce a new column, "printed matter" which will include news stories of national importance and other short items. We invite your comments and suggestions on this and other features in the magazine. Margaret Bremner, whose illustration appears at left, was a "founding parent" of the Saskatoon Environmental Society and did graphics for the environment magazine Probe. She also designed the covers for the 1977, 1978 and 1979 "Herstory" calendars. She now lives in Rimouski, Quebec. Branching Out letters Swell Review Diary Begun results static. The danger is that others will come along and see the art from the The review in Branching Out of my I thought Barbara Martineau's arti outside aspects without any sense of book Right Hand, Left Hand has given cle about some of us who are women Sarah Jackson, Halifax me that good warm feeling a sitting by animators was very good and very fair. I the fire over glowing embers feeling. It like Barbara's conclusion about the was good of the editor to give the book solitary nature of our work, that it is an Softening Needed to Joyce Marshall, a participant. A adaptation in part to the system of I had two intense reactions to the number of the reviews have been by production of animation which isn't last issue, both positive. One was to half-baked, youngish smart alecks who geared to giving many people control. I Barbara Martineau's animation article, know nothing of the period. This review enjoyed reading other articles in the which I found excellent. I think the film could teach them how to approach a magazine. After reading about diary department is consistently the best I book: "What is the author's intention?" keeping I have begun to keep a diary of should really say my favourite part of (Not what they think it should be) and visual impressions, little sketches of Branching Out. My second reaction was "How well does she fulfill her aim?" sights to remember. to the letter from the woman who (Not, she should have done this and Caroline Leaf, Montreal criticized you for ignoring motherhood. that.) Joyce Marshall understood the Her comment about how biological roles book beautifully; its strengths and endure while "changing roles" are just weaknesses. Classification a Danger surface, was very eloquent. Not wishing to quibble, I think it Sometimes Branching Out's tone is as a amusing that not only Joyce Marshall, After twenty-nine years determinedly unemotional, and I think artist. I believe there is a but friends whose letters I quoted exactly professional that's a mistake. You don't often talk approach now want to wash their hands of the grave danger in the sociological about sex, love, and marriage in positive works by women artists are "lingo" of the time. We all said "Swell"! in which the ways and that goes against a lot of No. 2). Why not record it? We were all classified (Branching Out, Vol. 5, women's ingrained feelings. I think you involves struggling in a culturally barren, deprived I find my own creativity could soften and make an attempt to my intuition, in country to see literature in the context of research and searching touch those women's lives and hearts social change ... So our judgements depth, to find my own imagery and style.