IN THIS ISSUE:
- MISSING INFORMATION - VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ORIENTATION
- NOTICES
- ENGAGING YOUTH - LET'S TALK ABOUT IT....ONLINE!
- FULLY CLOTHED FEMALE ROLE MODELS NEEDED
- “YOU CAN'T BE WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE”
- PERCENT OF PREGNANCIES IN GIRLS 17 AND UNDER RESULTING IN ABORTIONS IN HOSPITALS
- HUMILITY MAKES YOU A BETTER LEADER…
- DEATH WAS EVERYWHERE WHEN I WAS PROSTITUTE. IT WAS MY WALLPAPER.
- WOMEN IN ACADEME
………………………………………………………………….……………
MISSING INFORMATION - VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Canadian women who self-identified as lesbian or bisexual are significantly more likely than heterosexual women to report violence by a current or previous spouse in the previous 5 years (21% versus 6%). However, the sex of the abusive spouse was not asked; therefore, the prevalence rates for lesbian or bisexual women could include opposite-sex spouses.
- Measuring violence against women, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 25 Feb 2013, http://bit.ly/WRdxvB
NOTICES
AIDS Moncton - On-line survey - AIDS Moncton is conducting an on-line survey with women and men in the 20 to 29 age group, to better understand whether or not they are able to access sexual health programs and services. More specifically, what are their needs in terms of sexual health information? AIDS Saint John and AIDS New Brunswick are assisting with the promotion of the survey. The NB AIDS organizations want to facilitate young people's access to sexual health education and services throughout rural and urban New Brunswick. By participating in this survey, you will be helping to guide the delivery of sexual health services for young adults aged 20 to 29 in New Brunswick, and to better inform policy makers about your needs. The survey will take 10 to 15 minutes and is totally confidential. If you complete this survey, and provide your name and contact information at the end, your name will be entered in a draw to win an iPAD Mini! We appreciate your help! Please click here (pdf) for more information or go to this link to begin the survey. http://bit.ly/W54ep0
Family Law Workshops – Please take a look at the upcoming family law workshops by region. The classes will be presented in the language indicated. You MUST PRE-REGISTER to attend these classes. Be sure to check this schedule the day of your class in case of cancellations. http://bit.ly/PZTALN
Interested in volunteering with the Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre? - Our volunteers become part of a dedicated group of women who provide an invaluable service to our community and to survivors of sexual violence in the greater Fredericton area. Must included a volunteer application form and reference form that must be completed and return to our office no later than March 22 2013. For more information [email protected] , www.fsacc.ca , Tel. 506-454-0460
Lunch & Learn Series Family Enrichment and Counseling Service - Spring 2013 - 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm $10 per person (unless otherwise stated), Bring your lunch! Coffee/Tea Provided, Programs take place at 356 Queen Street, Fredericton. To register, please call (506) 458-8211 or email [email protected]
Compassion Fatigue - Workshop Fri 26 April 2013, 9-4pm, Holy Cross Conference Room , STU with Barb Wilkins. Register by 12 April for early rate $89 (instead of $119), incl lunch, handouts: 458-8211; 1888-829-6777; [email protected] ; www.familyenrichment.ca
Boards & Agencies of N.B. - Apply to serve on government-appointed boards. Current opportunities: NB Community College, Collège communautaire du N.-B., Minimum Wage Board, Arts Board, Recycle NB, Department of Economic Development Advisory Council, Psychiatric Patient Advocate Services Tribunal & Review Board. Details & other boards: http://bit.ly/XOkfko
Domestic Human Trafficking Training Sessions - 5-day session by Alliance Against Modern Slavery, on 18-22 March 2013, Toronto (9am-4pm). For law enforcement, service providers & social workers. $200, subsidies available. http://bit.ly/VF5mAC
The Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre will be offering training - on two toolkits developed by the Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre (FSACC). Please note that the upcoming training is delivered in English only. A training delivered in French will be offered within the next year. If you would like to attend this training, please register no later than March 29th, 2013. [email protected] Tel: (506) 452-6986 http://lets-talk-about-it.ca/ http://parlons-en.ca/
Problem solving & building your global community – March26th, 9am to 11am NCR Building UNB Campus. Register for free at http://bit.ly/10XINdo
Last Call at the Oasis – Film on why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century (Jessica Yu/2011/105 min). 22 March 2012, 7pm, 180 St. John St, Cinema Politica Fredericton. http://bit.ly/156s2cK
The End of Immigration? - Montreal filmmakers Marie Boti & Malcolm Guy (2012/52 min) look at the regressive immigration policies of the Canadian state & the people most affected. 5 April 2013, 7 pm, 180 St. John St, Cinema Politica Fredericton. http://bit.ly/156s2cK
ENGAGING YOUTH - LET'S TALK ABOUT IT....ONLINE!
When it comes to engaging youth, we need to go where they are. These days, most youth spend a lot of time online – whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, blogs, and others. While there are of course some challenges and risks to being online, there's no doubt that the Internet is a powerful tool for spreading awareness and engaging youth in meaningful conversations.
We have designed several icons and images that can be used all over the internet, including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and any other websites.
We ask that you be creative when reaching out to the youth of your community. Encourage youth to learn more about this issue, and think about how it affects their own lives. Ask them to talk about it on social media. Send out our campaign logo and ask them to change their profile pictures for the month of April. Encourage them to create a YouTube video. The goal is to make this issue meaningful for youth, and to talk more about how this issue affects all of us.
For the month of April, we will be asking you and all our partners around the province to use these images to spread awareness of sexual assault in New Brunswick. Change your Facebook and Twitter profile pictures, add the graphic to your email signature, and help us spread the word!
Contact Jenn Richard for more information ( [email protected] ). Find us on Facebook by searching for the “Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2013 - Mois de la sensibilisation aux agressions sexuelles 2013” event where you can download profile pictures and other campaign resources!
FULLY CLOTHED FEMALE ROLE MODELS NEEDED
If democracy is where all citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives, & it is, since that's what Wikipedia says it is – then democracy is not the same for women & men. Having an equal say is more than voting, it includes free speech & participation in the public debate that usually precedes a new law or initiative.
If all the opinion pieces in the newspapers were by women & if the media panels discussing the day's politics were exclusively women, we would notice, right? Very often they are all men & we don't notice. If anyone does notice & says something, she better duck because there will be insults & attempts to ridicule her & the idea that there is a problem. But she is still right to say something…
We should be concerned that in the public sphere, opinions of men are heard much more frequently & given much more weight than women's. A balance of opinions would bring out more views but also might set different priorities, given that women & men's lives & cultures remain so different…
A Canada-wide study in 2010 showed that news stories featured women about 30% of the time. At best women account for 20% of the opinions expressed on the op-ed pages in Canadian newspapers…
There are various initiatives to address this. The Regroupement féministe du N.-B., the francophone provincial women's organisation, conducted research last year that evaluated the place attributed to women in the French print media. Women accounted for only 25% of the people quoted. On issues relating to government & politics, women accounted for a dismal 18% of the people quoted. In health care, education & arts, fields where women have a majority presence, fewer than 40% of the people quoted were women.
As a result of this revealing research, they applied & received a federal grant to change this scenario. $90,000 per year for 3 years will come to the group to improve the balance of views in the media: they will seek out & mentor women who have expertise & should weigh in on public opinion. They will also create tools for journalists to recognize the lopsided situation & address it...
No similar project exists among anglophone women's groups in the province but the Canadian group Informed Opinions assists women in having their opinions heard, in print, online, TV or radio. They call their project Media Action: Fully Clothed Female Role Models.
- From a column by Jody Dallaire, Nov 2012, http://bit.ly/UmeaLq
“YOU CAN'T BE WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE”
“That really sums up the whole concept of media literacy,” says Ann Dort-McLean of Girls Inc. of Northern Alberta. She oversees the Media Smarts program for girls, supported by the Canadian Women's Foundation. Girls aged 9-11 learn to critique & challenge the messages they see in films, tv, music videos, ads, video games, & social media.
During one session, the girls were analyzing a Canadian news magazine when one said: “There's no women!” The group went through every page: the only photos of women were in the ads. Incensed, they complained in writing to the magazine. They didn't hear back, but as Dort-McLean says, “It was so important that they spoke out.”
According to the American Psychological Association, the highly sexualized portrayal of women & girls in media has a strong negative influence on girls' confidence, sense of self-worth, & body image. It also influences which careers girls think they should have.
Learning how media is created helps the girls realize how false it can be, which often comes as a surprise. As one girl said, “It helped me understand how they can trick you.”
“An all-girl program is the best way to help girls discover their voice,” says Dort-McLean.
The 12-week program is currently offered as part of the school curriculum in Northern Alberta.
- Media Smarts, http://bit.ly/WM4pbr
PERCENT OF PREGNANCIES IN GIRLS 17 AND UNDER RESULTING IN ABORTIONS IN HOSPITALS
2009 27%
2008 28%
2006 24%
2004 21%
2002 36%
1999 24%
1992 20%
- Govt of N.B., Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Health Indicators, 2011.
HUMILITY MAKES YOU A BETTER LEADER…
Self-esteem appears to be the result of high performance, not the cause of it. Interventions to raise self-esteem either fail to improve performance or can even undermine performance. Our desire to improve the self-esteem of children may have resulted in children holding unrealistic self-assessments of their abilities, resulting in arrogance & … low self-esteem. Studies of people in their 20s show that narcissism has increased by 30% since 1985, empathy has decreased by 48% since 1979. Those high in arrogance have been shown to have weaker job performance, lower IQs & lower self-esteem…
One group of researchers believe that humility, confidence & self-esteem are all inter-related. They define humility as awareness of one's own strengths & weaknesses, openness to the notion of personal fallibility & perspective on the relative importance of the self within the context of the world. High self-esteem is positively associated with humility.
High self-esteem & humility are found to be related to empathy, contentment, honesty, courage. Those low in humility/honesty have been associated with higher crime, alcoholism, unethical business practices, dishonesty, sexual harassment, increased levels of conflict, entitlement & power seeking.
Our society resists the idea that good leaders are humble. While humility is perceived as an important trait in most roles, especially in a close friend, romantic partner, it is not seen as important for leaders.
Those who are confident ARE humble. Humility does not show weakness, it shows strength. Humility is not the result of low self-esteem, it is actually the result of high self-esteem. Humility does not mean denigrating or denying one's abilities. It does not mean you lack confidence
- Excerpt, article with Colleen Sharen, in IWIL, March 2012, Institute for Women in Leadership at Brescia University College, Canada's women's university. http://bit.ly/10XJFPk
DEATH WAS EVERYWHERE WHEN I WAS PROSTITUTE. IT WAS MY WALLPAPER.
Death was there as prostituted women and girls disappeared. My mind blanks out how many have disappeared that I knew of – let allow the millions that disappeared known or unknown to me in my lifetime.
She knows her death is seen as nothing by society – so pimps and punters have the freedom to kill her …for any excuse. Many punters murder (because) they cannot be bothered to pay the prostitute... That is what is hidden, as “research” is done into the endless murders of the prostituted. Instead, there is the search for the myth of the mad/bad punter who murders prostitutes – and of course, it usually only of interest if he is a serial killer or kills in a particular sick way. The reality that prostitutes live with is that the punters or pimps that are the most likely to murder them are ordinary men. They are just men that believe the myths that prostitutes are sub-humans, that prostitutes are just a commodity that will be discarded after use. That is an ordinary belief in all societies that normalise the sex trade.
If no-one challenges the male demand for prostitution, the bodies of the prostituted will continue to pile high, for their deaths will continue to be made invisible.
I was threatened with death countless times when I was prostituted or made to be inside porn. And I know the coldness and banal hate of those men that kill prostitutes.
Most prostitutes are not killed by the “mad/bad” serial killer – most are killed by one man killing one prostitute at a time.
Men who threatened me with killing me – whether pimps or punters – thought it would funny to kill a whore. I was told endlessly, no-one gives a shit about some whore getting killed, it just clearing the rubbish away. That is what many exited women live with, that reality we attempt to bury, that we don't speak out about…
How would being put in room where men know the prostitute/porn performer is their property ever be safe? Why is anyone ever surprised that so many women and girls in the sex trade are murdered indoors?
If we refuse to confront the male demand to have the prostituted class – if we always make excuses for punters, make excuse for consuming sadistic porn, makes excuses for the profiteers of the sex trade – then the murders will always be so normal they go unreported.
- Excerpts, blog by Rebecca Mott, British exited prostituted woman, http://bit.ly/YyUTpv
WOMEN IN ACADEME
The number of new full-time faculty positions in the biological sciences in Canada over the last 8 years has declined about 20% while the number of biologists with PhDs has grown 23%. This exacerbates the problem for women of child-bearing age. "Dr. Adamo recommends creating more family-friendly work policies for graduate students & postdocs. The recent report by the Council of Canadian Academies on barriers to women in research also noted that “more family friendly options & more flexible models of career progression are important considerations for a diversifying workplace.”
- Dalhousie Univ researcher Dr. Shelley Adamo, http://bit.ly/VtWt97 . Report by Council of Canadian Academies: http://bit.ly/SeFgQz
IN PARTING
He has committed the crime who profits by it.
- Seneca