C/O Nick Fewings, Unsplash
YWCA Hamilton workshops address unique mental health experiences among 2SLGBTQIA+ newcomers
Just a few months ago, Canada was experiencing a steady decline in COVID-19 cases and life was finally beginning to feel normal again. More Canadians were becoming fully vaccinated against the virus, further restrictions were loosening and McMaster University students were expecting an in-person start of the winter semester.
However, case counts, reopening plans and holiday trips all took a sharp turn with the emergence of the new SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant and concerns around mental health in the pandemic were again exacerbated.
In response to the ongoing mental health challenges, YWCA Hamilton’s Join program, Speqtrum and the RISE Collective hosted a three-part workshop with guest speaker Abrar Mechmechia, a mental health counsellor based in Hamilton, on navigating mental health for 2SLGBTQIA+ newcomers from November to January.
The Join program is a settlement program for women, youth and 2SLGBTQIA+ immigrants; Speqtrum is a skill-sharing and community building program for 2SLGBTQIA+ youths; and the RISE Collective is a youth-led collective for women, non-binary and gender fluid youths.
The first workshop of the series on Nov. 17 discussed pandemic exhaustion and its impact on mental health.
“[We] talked about noticing our bodies and . . . skills and reflections we could be doing to better understand our inner self,” said Noura Afify, 2SLGBTQIA+ Newcomer Youth Support Worker.
“[We] talked about noticing our bodies and . . . skills and reflections we could be doing to better understand our inner self,”
Noura Afify, 2SLGBTQIA+ Newcomer Youth Support Worker
The second workshop on Dec. 1 addressed the effects of trauma and triggers on mental health. For many 2SLGBTQIA+ newcomers and other marginalized folks, pandemic fatigue compounded with pre-existing trauma results in unique mental health challenges.
The third workshop on Jan. 5 focused on self-coping tools and how to navigate the mental health system.
At the workshops, Mechmechia also shared some of her findings from a survey of youths between the ages 15-29 in Canada to measure the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and well-being of marginalized youth and identify accessibility barriers to mental health services.
The preliminary findings from the survey highlighted key issues in accessibility of mental health services, financial barriers, lack of cultural competency, ineffective treatment, stigma and academic support.
For instance, 98% of respondents reported receiving long-term affordable care was a challenge. Cultural incompetency also led to folks being unable to access or not seeking help again. Those in school or post-secondary education reported increases in workload and the need for peer support programs.
The survey was a part of Mechmechia’s In This Together campaign, which launched in February 2021, to call on the federal and provincial governments to establish a post-pandemic mental health recovery plan for youths, especially for those who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of colour, newcomers, disabled or 2SLGBTQIA+.
Based on the research, Mechmechia and team highlighted the importance of increasing affordability and accessibility of mental health services, investing in ethnocultural services and providers and offering holistic support. They have also written an open letter to the government outlining recommendations to improve the current mental health support for youth, including the implementation of the post-pandemic mental health recovery plan. The letter has been endorsed by over 300 folks.
Despite the low turnout to the newcomer workshop series which took place on Zoom and challenges using interpreters for group sessions, Afify says it was well-received by the folks who participated.
“Folks were sharing and opening up. They were also understanding each other and compassionate towards each other sharing. I really enjoyed that part and that to me is a success in itself — that folks felt safe enough in this space to share and explore ideas and exchange information about how we cope differently and accept,” said Afify.
"I really enjoyed that part and that to me is a success in itself — that folks felt safe enough in this space to share and explore ideas and exchange information about how we cope differently and accept,"
Noura Afify, 2SLGBTQIA+ Newcomer Youth Support Worker
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s mental health are leading to a global mental health crisis. Particularly for marginalized folks who are already healing from or dealing with existing traumas, the added stress and complexity of the pandemic has created further burden and barriers. The past workshops are one of the many programs and services offered by the YWCA, Speqtrum, RISE Collective and the In This Together campaign to address this challenge.
There are workshops and events lined up for newcomers, youth, women and folks in marginalized communities every day at the YMCA. Speqtrum will also have a session on navigating gender affirming healthcare with live interpretations for newcomers and an at-home treasure hunt coming up.
New initiative by Spectrum and YWCA Hamilton helps newcomers connect with the community
C/O Calum Lewis
There is something incredibly special about cooking with someone. Many of us have happy memories associated with a certain kitchen or certain meals. For newcomers, cooking can not only be a way to stay connected to culture and something familiar in a foreign place, but it can also be the foundation for building a new community.
While building community in a new place is never easy, the pandemic has made it much harder. Noura Afify, the 2SLGBTQIA+ newcomer youth support worker at Speqtrum and YWCA Hamilton, has created an innovative solution in the form of her Food Talks series. Her goal is to help foster a sense of community for newcomers in these difficult days.
Prior to the lockdown, Afify had hoped to organize food tours to showcase businesses that carry important ingredients that many mainstream grocery stores may not and to help newcomers get oriented to Hamilton.
In its place, she has developed a wholesome series featuring conversations between herself and community members about their relationship to food.
“[Food Talks] is a space for us to talk about what food means to us as people — the emotions, the feelings, the memories, the ways that food connects us to those things and connects us to our cultures and to diasporic identities and stuff like that. But also, on the other hand, talking about how food can and has always been used to build community,” explained Afify.
“[Food Talks] is a space for us to talk about what food means to us as people — the emotions, the feelings, the memories, the ways that food connects us to those things and connects us to our cultures and to diasporic identities and stuff like that. But also, on the other hand, talking about how food can and has always been used to build community,” explained Afify.
The episodes serve as a way to introduce newcomers to members of the community and are also connected to the virtual community kitchen, Mother Tongue.
Food Talks is catered towards elders and youth. The episodes of the series are posted on both Instagram and Facebook, which Afify hopes will allow both demographics to engage with it.
So far, the series has been received warmly by both the viewers and the interviewees.
“It's been really sweet. We've been having folks leave really sweet comments. And folks who did partake in the interview said they really enjoyed it and almost everybody wanted to come and co-facilitate a community kitchen with us. It was really lovely to see that because that is my goal, to have them meet newcomers in person or virtually, so that means a lot to me. And I'm sure it will mean a lot to the newcomers to be able to make those nice affirming connections and create support systems,” said Afify.
It's very important to Afify that Food Talks fosters a sense of community for 2SLGBTQIA+ newcomers, showing them that there is a space for them in Hamilton. She hopes Food Talks will help ease some of the worries newcomers have about finding connection and community in a new place during these times.
Afify also recognizes the importance of making long-term connections, especially for newcomer students. She hopes that Food Talks will give them an opportunity to create these kinds of connections with the larger Hamilton community.
“When I was a student, I was fairly isolated and it was hard getting support only from other students because exams and everybody was so busy all the time. Whereas if you want to connect with an elder in the queer and trans community that's off-campus, they will make time for you. So you're also building connections that are going to support you for the rest of your life. You are meeting mentors, you are learning from people. Most of my learning happened from people, not from classrooms,” explained Afify.
As of publication, only two episodes of Food Talks have been released but more are in the works. Going forward, Afify also hopes to film episodes in languages other than English to help overcome any language barriers.
“This whole project is to give a warm, virtual, community hug to newcomers who are super isolated right now and are really, really struggling. It's one thing to be a newcomer, it's another thing to be a newcomer has to go through all the struggles and barriers in the middle of COVID,” said Afify.
The Hamilton-based project Filipinas of HamONT is using interviews and surveys to find and connect the community
There are not enough spaces in Hamilton where BIPOC feel that they belong. BIPOC in the Steel City often feel disconnected from their heritage, their history and their community.
This is a problem that Anabelle Ragsag and Jessica Vinluan are hoping that folks in Hamilton with Filipino heritage will one day no longer have to face. They are helping to tackle the problem with their community-engaged project, Filipinas of HamONT.
Ragsag is an author and educator with a background in politics who immigrated to Canada from the Philippines in 2009. Vinluan is a teacher, the founder of BIPOC youth organization Redefine Twenty and a second-generation Filipina-Canadian who was born and raised in Hamilton.
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With their different backgrounds, they have made their project Filipinas of HamONT for all Filipinas in the city of Hamilton, whether they were born and raised in the city, a naturalized citizen, a long-timer, a newcomer or just passing by as is the case for many students.
They have made their project Filipinas of HamONT for all Filipinas in the city of Hamilton, whether they were born and raised in the city, a naturalized citizen, a long-timer, a newcomer or just passing by as is the case for many students.
The pair met in early 2020 at a Reaching for Power workshop, an initiative that teaches BIPOC women and non-binary individuals how to make a positive change in their communities. After the workshop series ended, Ragsag and Vinluan began in June 2020 to think about creating a project for the Filipina community. In fall 2020, they received a microgrant for the project and began sharing it with the larger community in November.
The project initially consisted of a survey designed to map where Filipinas in Hamilton are located. The survey asks for participants’ demographic information including: their highest completed education level; the province in the Philippines that any member of their family is from; if they are working, the industry in which they are employed; and the effect that COVID-19 has had on their livelihood.
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The survey results will be shared to show where Filipinas in Hamilton are. As Filipinas began immigrating to Hamilton in the 1960s to build the health sector, Ragsag and Vinluan anticipated that many of the Filipinas that participate in their survey will work in this area. However, they began to find Filipinas outside of this sector when they decided to complement their survey with interviews with Hamilton-based Filipinas.
“[E]specially being born and raised in Hamilton, I didn't really think that I could see Filipinas in different spaces and I think to be able to see that . . . like, “oh, you're not just in the health sector, there's other avenues that maybe I can take if I see myself in them” . . . [The project is] validating that it's not just in the health sector, but like other aspects as well and other spaces that Filipinos are taking up,” said Vinluan.
"[The project is] validating that it's not just in the health sector, but like other aspects as well and other spaces that Filipinos are taking up," said Vinluan.
Ragsag and Vinluan have completed eight of the 10 interviews that they aimed to do. They shared the first interview on Nov. 13, 2020 and will continue to share them until March 2021. The interview series neatly exemplifies the intention behind the project: they want to share stories of leadership, empowerment and living between two cultures.
“I grew up and it was very white-dominated spaces. I think that, as a Filipina, I felt like I didn't belong in a lot of the spaces . . . I felt like I couldn't have these kinds of conversations around dual identity and things that I feel like I had difficulties navigating. So, when Anabelle brought up the idea of starting Filipinas of HamONT through the YWCA project, I was so excited because I know there's a lot of these kinds of community collectives in Toronto . . . but I also feel like I don't belong because it's Toronto and I'm from Hamilton,” explained Vinluan.
Based on the feedback from some of their interviewees, Ragsag and Vinluan are working towards running online events that will enable them to continue the important conversations they began in the interviews. They are considering running a book club where they would read works by Filipino authors and hosting workshops on the history of the Philippines.
“I saw that a lot of second and multiple generations of those with Filipino roots have this thirst to know more about what it is like. What does it mean if I don't speak Filipino, if I don't speak Tagalog, am I still Filipino? Because of my teaching background . . . I thought that's something that I can do. That is something that I can contribute to the community,” said Ragsag.
“I saw that a lot of second and multiple generations of those with Filipino roots have this thirst to know more about what it is like. What does it mean if I don't speak Filipino, if I don't speak Tagalog, am I still Filipino?" said Ragsag.
However, in starting this project, Ragsag and Vinluan do not intend to take away from the work done by established Filipino organizations in Hamilton. They recognize the importance of churches, cultural gatherings, all-Filipino sports tournaments and student organizations such as the Filipino McMaster Student Association. They aim to work alongside these organizations to connect the Filipina community.
Despite the name, Ragsag and Vinluan are not completely closing the project to woman-identifying individuals. The project is intended to evolve with community needs.
“We see that our being here in Canada is rooted to that history of a feminized migration . . . So I think it started from there but at the same time, the project is an evolving one – it's not set in stone — and we are aware that identities are fluid, as well . . . the role of those who don't identify as male or female have been there in history but they [were] erased by colonization. That is one of the topics that we want to discuss: what is it in our history that was erased? Can we uncover them?” said Ragsag.
Ragsag and Vinluan hope that this project will enable them and other Hamilton-based Filipinas to continue learning more about their history and heritage. By having these conversations with their community and connecting with established organizations, the project will help ensure that every Filipina in Hamilton feels they belong.
By Christina Reed, Contributor
Every winter, many women in Hamilton find themselves without a safe, warm place to sleep.
Without protection from the elements, these women struggle to survive. As affordable housing in Hamilton becomes increasingly inaccessible, the number of homeless women in Hamilton in need of emergency shelters rises each year. According to a 2018 community profile from the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 65 per cent of the 386 individuals identified as experiencing homelessness in Hamilton spent the night at a shelter.
In Hamilton, a number of non-profit organizations collectively work to address the needs of women vulnerable to homelessness. Mission Services of Hamilton, a Christian charity centred around eradicating poverty, runs Willow’s Place, a year-round drop-in hub that provides safety and amenities during daytime hours. This includes access to showers, harm reduction services, a secure place to rest and opportunities to engage in creative and social activities. In the winter, Willow's Place provides extended hours, given that they secure sufficient donor support.
Carole Anne’s Place is an overflow women’s shelter run during the winter months by the Young Women’s Christian Association of Hamilton, a women-led service organization that focuses on health and wellness programs. Women coming to Carole Anne’s place are greeted with a hot meal, a safe bed to sleep in and hot coffee the following morning. Bus tickets are provided so that women can travel between Willow’s Place and Carole Anne’s Place.
Violetta Nikolskaya, Senior Program Analyst at the YWCA Hamilton and co-founder of the Women and Gender Equity Network at McMaster, said that working around the clock was key to working together and providing essential services.
“Our relationship was built on the collaboration of women's services — no one organization can do this alone,” she added.
“Our relationship was built on the collaboration of women's services — no one organization can do this alone,” said Violetta Nikolskaya, Senior Program Analyst at the YWCA Hamilton and co-founder of the Women and Gender Equity Network at McMaster
This is the fourth winter that Carole Anne’s Place has supported homeless women in Hamilton. The program originated from another Hamilton non-profit, Out of the Cold, which offers hot meals to those in need over the winter months.
Previously, Carol Anne’s Place had been funded by Out of the Cold and Hamilton-Niagara’s Local Health Integration Network, one of the 14 provincial authorities that governed public healthcare administration in 2019. Ontario’s 14 LHINs were replaced by a 12-member Ontario health agency board; as a result, the YWCA has lost access to previous funding.
There would be no provincial support for Carole Anne’s Place to open on Dec. 1. Without funding, Carole Anne’s Place would be unable to open this winter, leaving many homeless women with nowhere to go during dangerously cold nights. Willow’s Place, which relies on donations, would also be unable to expand their winter hours without further funding this year.
On Nov. 6, in a last-minute push, City Hall approved $128,000 in emergency funding to keep Carole Anne’s Place and Willow’s Place available this winter.
This is not a sustainable solution. Sam Merulla, the Ward 4 councillor who moved to provide the donation, sided with this point.
"It's not good management to have someone all the sudden come in at the eleventh hour and say 'we need a quarter of a million dollars?' It's not good governance," said Merulla to CBC.
"It's not good management to have someone all the sudden come in at the eleventh hour and say 'we need a quarter of a million dollars?' It's not good governance," said Merulla.
According to Nikolskaya, it is not uncommon for initiatives such as Carole Anne’s Place and Willow’s Place to struggle with sustainable core funding. The need to maintain emergency shelters in Hamilton is becoming more urgent with the rising number of homeless women in the city. Nikolskaya reports that emergency women’s shelters have been over capacity for the last several years, and she has witnessed the amount of women seeking refuge at Carole Anne’s Place increasing with every year.
In the winter of 2014-2015, Nikolskaya reports that only about five women would access Carole Anne’s programming per night. In the winter of 2018-2019, this number jumped to an average of 14 women per night, with some nights seeing as many as 20.
Often reaching maximum capacity, Hamilton's shelters have been turning away women in recent years. This is likely linked to the rising prevalence of homelessness in Hamilton and a lack of affordable housing.
While monetary donations play a huge role in supporting the YWCA and Mission Services, there are other ways to contribute. For example, donations of socks and underwear are also valuable. According to Nikolskaya, any contribution can be an impactful one in ensuring that no woman is left in the cold this winter.
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Last names have been omitted to protect identities.
In an office within the YWCA’s Hamilton headquarters on MacNab Street lays the home base for Hamilton’s latest initiative to connect LGBTQ+ youth. Speqtrum Hamilton, a non-profit organization housed under the YWCA, hosts monthly events and workshops for LGBTQ+ youth aged 17-29, and focuses on creating connections and teaching youth new skills.
Founded by three McMaster alumni, Speqtrum Hamilton holds sessions twice a month offering a variety of activities such as knitting circles, dodgeball tournaments and letter writing workshops. Speqtrum Hamilton is funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and housed under the local YWCA.
Speqtrum Hamilton is meant to fill the void left after the shutdown of LGBT+ friendly bars and the LGBTQ+ Wellness Centre of Hamilton. Currently run by Jyssika, the project coordinator and Jiya, the program coordinator, the two hope to offer LGBTQ+ spaces outside of post-secondary institutions.
“When I went to McMaster, I found a lot of community in spaces like the Queer Students Community Centre and spaces like that but I noticed there wasn’t a lot happening outside of Mac and with the fall of the [LGBTQ+ Wellness Centre], Hamilton’s only queer agency, which collapsed about three or four years ago, there really wasn’t anything,” said Jyssika. “Considering barriers queer students face just to access school, or maybe you lose financial support from your parents, that kind of thing, or maybe you’re just not interested in going to school, then you don’t really have those spaces,” she said.
“There’s no specific [LGBTQ+] space that’s continuous, and the nice thing about Speqtrum Hamilton is that it’s every single month,” Jiya said.
"Considering barrieres queer students face just to access school, or maybe you lose financial support from your parents, that kind of thing, or maybe you're just not interested in going to school, then you don't really have those spaces."
Jyssika
Program coordinator
Speqtrum Hamilton
Jyssika cites the recent gentrification of Hamilton’s downtown core as one of the reasons for the shutdown of popular LGBTQ+ bars like the Embassy, a once popular club on King Street West.
“I think that, especially in Hamilton and the gentrification that’s happened in the last five years, unfortunately, that gentrification in a way also comes some different queer acceptance in spaces — generally gentrified spaces are more queer-infused, and there was a comfort level queer people had going to other places outside of traditional spaces that probably affected business in spaces,” said Jyssika.
Jiya also cites the lack of connection between LGBTQ+ services and service providers as another aspect of the decline of LGBTQ+ spaces in Hamilton.
“So for example, if you’re not connected to a service provider, it’s a lot harder to be connected with the different things that are happening for queer youth. And that’s not to say there aren’t groups here and there. … There’s no specific [LGBTQ+] space that’s continuous, and the nice thing about Speqtrum Hamilton is that it’s every single month,” Jiya said. Speqtrum Hamilton focuses on offering a variety of activities in hopes of building different communities within the LGBTQ+ community in Hamilton.
“Some of the most lasting connections I made at school were through theatre or doing something together or learning a skill together, rather than the classic form of ‘alright, let’s put a bunch of people with a shared identity and expect them to be best friends’,” Jyssika said.
“Ideally if you don’t find comfort in one space, you’ll find comfort in another. We want to create spaces for people to learn skills to learn how to create community,” she added.
While Speqtrum Hamilton currently focuses on offering diverse programming, both Jyssika and Jiya plan on creating community building workshops to teach LGBTQ+ youth how to plan their own events and community build on their own.
As the service continues to grow, both hope to offer a sense of community in Hamilton.
“We’re trying to offer consistency, and offer a space that people know and that they can invest in,” said Jyssika.
From letter writing workshops to swim nights, Speqtrum Hamilton hopes to build communities for LGBTQ+ youth living in an ever changing city.
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A new report on women’s leadership in the Hamilton and Halton region reveals that women are underrepresented in senior leadership positions across a variety of sectors.
The report, co-authored by Karen Bird, associate professor of political science at McMaster, and Samantha Jackson, PhD candidate, looks at 2,565 women in senior leadership positions across nine different sectors. It finds that women are underrepresented in all sectors, except for the voluntary sector.
“It is really important to have these numbers, because we think it is 2014 and we have achieved equality, and there’s kind of a movement or buzz that there’s no need for feminism anymore,” said Bird. “I think our numbers should cause us to think about that, [and] reflect on that.”
Women are especially underrepresented in senior leadership positions in the corporate sector, with an average of 17.8 percent of women in top positions, and the private legal sector with a dismal 24.2 percent representation.
“There are barriers in private law firms to women achieving partnership. Even though women enter into the law firms, at the entry level, in reasonable numbers, […] they are not making it to partner,” said Bird. “It stood out as a very stark lack of inclusiveness of women.”
Women make up more than half of law school graduates, yet are still underrepresented in senior positions in the legal sector. Judiciary positions are the most representative at 40.4 percent, followed by 33.3 percent of Crown and Deputy Crown positions.
“There’s this very kind of popular argument that women need to lean in, we want to say that organizations need to lean in too,” said Bird.
These findings are consistent with a similar study of women’s leadership in the greater Toronto area completed at the University of Toronto in 2012.
One sector where the Hamilton and Halton region fares better than the GTA is in the voluntary sector. In non-profit organizations, women make up an average of 51 percent of senior leadership.
“Some people have said, ‘oh well that’s exactly what you’d expect, of course women are choosing to be in the voluntary sector and social services, that’s what they want to do. They don’t want to be heads of corporations,’” said Bird. “That’s problematic to think ‘this is where women want to be.’ I think women want to be in all of these sectors.”
The report also found that at universities, women make up only 28.6 percent of senior leadership positions.
Similar representations of women in senior positions are found at McMaster. According to a study released in January 2014 by Charlotte Yates, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, only two of the eight Deans at McMaster are women, and over the last five years only 20 percent of Chairs and Directors of Academic units have been women faculty. Additionally, there has only been one female President and two female Provosts in McMaster’s 127-year history.
However, Yates’ report found that many of McMaster’s faculties are experiencing positive trends in the percentage of women in tenure-track positions, including the School of Business and the Faculty of Engineering. Women’s leadership is especially representative in the Faculty of Health Sciences, which has traditionally had a consistent record of both hiring and promoting women.
Bird is also working to create positive trends in women’s leadership at McMaster. As a part of the Academic Women’s Mentorship Ad Hoc Committee, she has helped to plan a series of lectures from women in leadership positions across multiple disciplines. The lecture series will highlight women’s success stories as well as barriers faced, and strategies to overcome those barriers. The series will begin Nov. 6 and is open to students from any faculty.
The report on women’s leadership has been made possible by contributions from McMaster’s Faculty of Social Science, the YWCA Hamilton, and Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. The Academic Women’s Mentorship lecture series is funded by a grant from President Patrick Deane’s Forward with Integrity initiative.
Devra Charney / Silhouette Staff
The notion of the glass ceiling has become synonymous with the everyday struggles women face to climb the corporate ladder. On March 28, a networking event was held at TwelveEighty and allowed Mac students to get an inside look at how women in the community face and try to break through the glass ceiling in their respective sectors.
The non-partisan event was hosted by Beyond the Numbers, a Young Liberals of Canada program that encourages young women to engage in politics.
Executive Vice-President of the McMaster Young Liberals Tahiya Bakht organized the evening around the theme of breaking the glass ceiling. It was primarily aimed toward young women because, in Bakht’s networking experiences, men generally do more of the talking.
“When I was at career nights or networking nights, I felt like boys were getting more time with the guests, and they were just more able to break the ice with guests, so I decided that I would host an event that was geared toward getting women more comfortable with that. I wanted the guests to know that this was targeted toward women so that they’d come with a more open mind.”
Students looking to build their personal networks as well as learn how to navigate the workplace mingled with professionals in law, politics and business.
Guests included YWCA coordinators, former Chief of Staffs, lawyers, professors, a VP of Maple Leaf Foods, Mohawk coordinators, EMS workers and staff from the Hamilton Police Services, and other female leaders from the Hamilton community.
Graduate student Felicia Rahaman attended the event in order to network and get advice on entering the professional sphere as a young female. She explained that because of her academic focus in Gender Studies and Feminist Research, she was drawn to the values represented by the event because it encouraged women to move up in the workplace.
“I find the issue of breaking the glass ceiling and getting more women to participate in the workforce very interesting. So I [wanted to] get firsthand experience with women that are working in [various] industries and understand what they perceive to be barriers and how to circumvent those.”
Linda Minas-Connolly, Paramedic Training Supervisor and Advanced Care Paramedic, spoke about the lack of women in emergency service jobs, but she also noted that physical testing in her field does not segregate males and females or favour one gender over another.
She reiterated that personal motivation and qualifications are important factors in success, and so recently, more women are entering the emergency sector as they gain confidence in their capabilities.
“Fire, police, it’s male dominated. I think it’s just up to the individual ... Fortunately, in the twelve years that I’ve been here, there have been more women in this type of job, this career choice, and I think that’s because they realize that they can do it just as well as or even better than a man can.”
Sole Practitioner Joan MacDonald advocated for the importance of having a female perspective at the upper-management level. She recognized the gap between men and women in her field in senior management positions and hoped there would be continued work to diminish the gap.
“When I publicly speak, I’ll say to men, the next time you go into a board room and you’ve got a vacancy, rather than looking across at a man or thinking of a man you work with, think of some of those high powered women and bring them with you.”
Bakht hopes to organize a similar event that continues the theme of empowering young women on a larger scale in the fall.
Devra Charney/ The Silhouette
On Friday March 8, the global community celebrated International Women’s Day. The 2013 theme focused on promoting gender equality in a modern progressive world.
On campus, McMaster hosted multidisciplinary activist and educator Kim Crosby. Her workshop on anti-racism as well as her keynote address were much-anticipated events for a number of students and community members.
Emilee Guevara, member of Feminist Alliance McMaster (FAM), was pleased to see McMaster bring Crosby and the values that she represents to campus, hoping for similar speakers in the future.
“This event was awesome to have Kim here speaking. International Women’s Day is to talk about women, but it’s to talk about issues that affect all women, so that’s where her theme of intersectionality is really important… I hope that events like this can continue every year and in every space, not just on specific days.”
FAM endeavours to make sure campus remains accessible throughout the year for students looking to connect and align with other feminists in a safe environment. Guevara added that FAM’s activism also extends off campus to related community events where members can meet up and attend as a group.
“Women and men have joined together to go to certain events, like Take Back the Night, like the SlutWalk, celebrate International Women’s Day… hopefully making connections for women who have felt either silenced, objectified, sexualized, who have experienced rape and harassment and sexual assault – realities in the lives of women everywhere.”
And in an effort to address the issue of violence against women in a McMaster context, The Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton & Area (SACHA) and YWCA Hamilton have partnered together for the It’s Time to End Violence Against Women on Campus project funded by Status of Women Canada.
Project coordinator and Mac alum Alicia Ali said that McMaster currently lacks specific guidelines on dealing with violence against women on campus.
“The project is split into two phases – information gathering and outcome,” she explained. “The information-gathering phase includes surveys and focus groups to identify current gaps, priorities, resources, opportunities, and strengths around the issue of violence against women on campus.”
Students are invited to attend sessions as part of a Safety Audit scheduled for March 18and 19 so that they can provide feedback on safety around campus. A campus walk-about will also allow students to point out specific problem areas and voice their concerns about unsafe parts of campus after dark.
“The second phase of the project includes a campus wide awareness campaign, events on campus, and a campus community protocol in how the university responds to instances of violence against women,” said Ali.
“We hope to explore the possibility of introducing a gender-based analysis to all policy development at the university.”
The project coordinators and advisory committee will provide the University with a list of recommendations after a two-year period on how to increase safety for women as well as involve the campus community in a more informed approach to dealing with the culture of violence against women.
McMaster joins the One Billion Rising
It’s simple math, really.
There are about six billion people on the earth, half of whom are women. And according to a report from the United Nations Development Fund for Women, one in three women will experience some form of sexual violence or harassment in her lifetime.
Activist Eve Ensler did the math. And because one billion women in the world would be affected, she decided it was time to do something about it.
Ensler, who wrote the controversial play The Vagina Monologues, is the founder of V-Day, a global day of activism on Feb. 14 to end violence against women. 2013 marks the fifteenth anniversary of V-Day and will see the launch of her newest project, called One Billion Rising (OBR).
OBR is designed to be an international phenomenon that will involve groups of women occupying public spaces and dancing.
Upon hearing about the movement, McMaster activists wanted to get in on the action.
“Not only is this to raise awareness, but it’s to celebrate women and girls,” explained TJ Jamieson, fourth-year nursing student and project director at Feminist Alliance McMaster (FAM). The McMaster event, which will take place in the MUSC Atrium in the afternoon of Feb. 14, will feature Zumba and belly dancing lessons, a flash mob, and an evening dance party.
“We didn’t want to be doom and gloom,” Jamieson said. “Obviously [sexual assault] is a very stoic subject, but we also wanted to include that women are amazing.”
The event will be hosted in collaboration between FAM and I Am Woman, a newly formed women’s interest group on campus that identifies itself as a “communicative link” between the variety of women’s campaigns. Hamilton’s own YWCA and Sexual Assault Centre for the Hamilton Area (SACHA) are also partners in organizing. While the event is focused on women, people of all gender identities are encouraged to attend.
“We are hoping for a lot of people to show up,” said Faiza Shafaqat, president of I Am Woman. Shafaqat, a third-year biopsych student, joked that “instead of sitting at home and eating chocolate by myself, I’ll be supporting this and raising awareness about violence against women.” She added that the feedback they have gotten so far has been “amazingly positive.”
OBR is not without its critics, however. Feminist activists from outside North America have called the international movement “imperialist” for its alleged theme of the superiority of Western culture.
And even at McMaster itself, there has been some criticism.
“People deeply involved in the feminist movement can be a little bit condescending towards this event because it’s dancing—you know, what can that do against violence against women?” said Amy Hutchison, second-year math and stats student and president of FAM.
“But my response and the response I’ve heard from others is that you also have to have fun.”
The choice of dance as the medium for the event is not only for the fun of it, though; Ensler and the movement’s proponents wanted to highlight the use of dance as a creative form of protest, as well as a means of healing for women affected by sexual violence.
Hutchinson and her co-organizers hope that participants will gain a sense of global connection, as well as a positive relationship with activism.
“No one’s saying that you have to stop violence against women, as if after February 14, when people dance, there will be no violence,” she said.
“Women need a chance to come together and see that one billion of us all supporting each other and dancing [is a good thing], and dance is a really expressive and artistic way to show that.”
In the absence of a women's centre, women on campus currently use the Student Wellness Centre, among other student services.
The newly established Ad-Hoc Committee for the Women and Trans* Centre met for the first time on Nov. 6. The committee, which was created through a motion at the Oct. 14 SRA meeting, is focused on establishing whether or not there is a need for such a centre on campus. Elise Milani, SRA Services Commissioner and the committee chair, was pleased with the first meeting.
“It was a great turnout,” she said of the twenty-plus people who attended. The attendees came from a number of different areas of the university, including the MSU and the Graduate Students’ Association, as well external organizations, such as the YWCA and SACHA, a women’s centre located in downtown Hamilton.
There is currently no service of this kind that exists on or near the McMaster campus. Mac did have a women’s centre from 1979 to 1985, but it was closed because it had allegedly ceased to be an open and inclusive space.
At their inaugural meeting, the committee established an action plan to follow in the coming weeks and months. In the midst of increasing reports of sexual assault on university campuses, including Ryerson and York, Milani and others feel that a women and trans* centre would fill a need not currently addressed by other health-related services on campus.
In order to assess the need, the committee will seek input and information from a variety of groups. Affiliates of both the YWCA and SACHA will be compiling information about violence on campus, while student groups, including I am Woman and Feminist Alliance McMaster, will be invited to provide different perspectives.
“We’ll basically just find out if there’s anyone that has anything to say to it, because we shouldn’t just target certain groups because we think they’d be interested,” Milani explained. “You don’t know what people’s different stories are and what they hear in different environments.”
The committee hopes to work with the Office of Human Rights and Equity Services in order to get further information from advocates of trans issues on campus as well.
“It’s not just focused on women,” Milani noted. “We need to get that part of the story as well.”
The plan is to complete the assessment by the end of January, at which point the committee will report back to the SRA.
“And if we establish a need,” she said, “we’ll move forward from there.”
