This ‘one pager’ by the International Poverty Centre (IPC) examines the concept of the ‘feminization of poverty’ and the various ways in which it can be defined. IPC proposes a definition that is in line with many recent studies in the field: the feminization of poverty is a change in poverty levels that is biased against women or female-headed households. More specifically, it is an increase in the difference in poverty levels between women and men, or between households headed by females on the one hand, and those headed my males or couples on the other.

KICKACTION.CA wants people who are into writing (or shooting photo essays!) about events in their communities, people who inspire them, or everyday events in their lives (with a bit of analysis!) They want adventurers, detectives, journalists & online pirates, and we want you.

Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson, of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) have recently submitted their Shadow Report in response to Canada’s Submissions on the Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Unhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Last March, Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, passed second reading in the House of Commons. This bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code and to create a separate offence for causing the injury or death of an “unborn child” should a pregnant woman be the victim of a crime.

The adoption of Bill C-484 would introduce a huge change in our law that would result in massive intrusions in the lives of pregnant women, as has been the case in those states in the U.S. that have adopted similar legislation.

It is important that we take a stand now to defend women’s reproductive rights. This is a question that goes to the heart of women’s equality, dignity and human rights.

Attached is a call to action, a backgrounder on Bill C-484 and a template letter to your MP. Please join the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and register your opposition to Bill C-484.

There is a wealth of information online on women’s economic security in Canada and factors contributing to the feminization of poverty. We have compiled a database of articles that can easily be seen here.

On December 13th, 2007, federal Conservative Member of Parliament, Ken Epp, tabled Bill C-484, “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of an unborn child while committing an offense)”. The Bill is usually cited by its short title, The Unborn Victims of Crime Act. The Act has now passed its second reading in the House of Commons.

Bill C-484 would allow charges to be laid in the death of an “unborn child” if the mother is a victim of violent crime. As a result, many believe that it opens the door to giving de facto legal personhood to a foetus. The granting of such status could conflict with women’s rights and undermine the current legal understanding by the Supreme Court of Canada that a woman and her foetus are considered “physically one,” and that the foetus is not a separate entity. By separating the two in his new bill, Epp is advancing a position that runs counter to that of the Supreme Court and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The 52nd session of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women took place in March 2008. The theme for these sessions was “Financing for Women’s Equality”.

FAFIA led a delegation of eight women to attend these sessions. The delegation took part in a training session on women’s economic security in Canada to lend domestic context to these international meetings.

Please find our training materials on women’s economic securiy after the jump…

The Women’s Court of Canada (WCC) is an innovative project bringing together academics, activists, and litigators in order literally to rewrite the Canadian Charter equality jurisprudence. The WCC grew out of a LEAF-sponsored colloquium entitled “In Pursuit of substantive Equality,” held in September 2003 and February 2004. Taking inspiration from Oscar Wilde, who once said “the only duty we owe to history is to rewrite it,” the WCC now operates as a virtual court, and ‘reconsiders’ leading equality decisions, rendering alternative decisions as a means of articulating new conceptions of substantive equality. The WCC is engaged in an ongoing critique and re-envisioning of Canadian case law in order to invigorate the equality debate by bringing new voices to the debate and encouraging new thinking about equality issues to the benefit of legal education and the broader public across Canada.

FAFIA launched its gender budgeting project in October 2007 with the support of Oxfam Canada and the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. This project has a national focus and relies on the ongoing engagement of many of FAFIA’s members and partners who are dedicated to substantive equality in Canada.

Gender budgeting addresses women’s inequality by examining a government’s budgets through a gender lens and, in particular, where its tax and spending priorities lie.

As part of a two piece series reporting on the 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that was recently held at the United Nations in New York from February 25 – March 7, 2008, Sarah Rosenhek from the Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) wrote this informative report.