Women

Women World March 2000

March 8th, 2000 was the official launch of the World March of Women and the beginning of eight months of organizing on issues that are close to all women's hearts.  It was indeed a fabulous experience building solidarity with women, men and children around the world.

WHERE DID THE IDEA OF A WOMEN'S WORLD MARCH CAME FROM?

The idea to hold a world march of women in the year 2000 was born out of the experience of the Women's March Against Poverty.  The World March was a global project with more than 5,000 groups participating in 157 countries.  Hundreds of Canadian women's organizations, social justice, church, student and labour groups were among them.  The objectives of the World March are to end poverty and violence in women's lives and a concrete set of demands.

WHAT ARE THE THIRTEEN DEMANDS?

• Demand 1:     Women and Health:  With a large budget surplus, the federal government can and must restore funding to health care and enforce the rules against the privatization of our health care system, beginning with Alberta.
  
  
• Demand 2:  Women and Housing: The federal government must spend an additional 1% of the budget on social housing.
  
  
• Demand 3:  Women and Childcare: The federal government must set up the promised national child care fund, starting with an immediate contribution of $2 billion.
  
  
• Demand 4:  Women and Pensions:  The federal government must increase Old Age Security payments to provide older women with a decent standard of living.
  
  
• Demand 5:  Women and Employment:  The federal government must use the surplus from the Employment Insurance Fund to increase benefits, provide longer payment periods and improve access, as well as improve maternity and family benefits.
  
  
• Demand 6a):  Women and Violence:  The federal government must support women's organizing for equality and democracy by allocating $50 million to front-line, independent, feminist, women-controlled groups committed to ending violence against women, such as women's centres, rape crisis centre and women`s shelters.
  
  
• Demand 6b):  Aboriginal Women:  Recognizing and funding the three autonomous national Aboriginal women's organizations to ensure full participation in all significant public policy decisions as well as providing adequate funding to Aboriginal women's services, including shelters, in all rural, remote and urban Aboriginal communications.
  
  
• Demand 6c):  Resources for Lesbians:  The federal government must fund a Canada-wide meeting of lesbians to discuss and prioritize areas for legislative and public policy reform.
  
  
• Demand 6d):  Our Fair Share:  The federal government must provide $30 million in core funding for equality-seeking women's organizations, which represents only $2.00 for every women and girl child in Canada - Our Fair Share.
  
  
• Demand 7:  Women and Consultations:  The government must fund consultations with a wide range of women's equality-seeking organizations prior to any legislative reform of relevance to women's security and equality rights, beginning with the Criminal Code, and ensure access for women from marginalized communities.
  
  
• Demand 8:  Women and Immigration:  The federal government must implement a progressive immigration reform which provides domestic workers with full immigration status on landing: abolishes "head tax" on all immigrants; and includes persecution on the basis of gender and sexual orientation as grounds for claiming refugee status.
  
  
• Demand 9:  Women and International Solidarity:  The federal government must support the cancellation of the debts of the worlds poorest countries and increase its contribution to international aid to 0.7% of the Gross National Product.
  
  
• Demand 10:  Women and Welfare:  The federal government must adopt national standards which guarantee the right to welfare for everyone in need and ban workfare.
  
  
• Demand 11: Women with Disabilities and Inclusion:  Recognize the ongoing exclusion of women and disabilities from economic, political and social life and take the essential first step of ensuring and funding full access for women with disabilities to all consultations on issues of relevance to women.
  
  
• Demand 12:  Women and Education:  The federal government must establish a national system of grants based on need, not merit, to enable access to post-secondary education and reduce student debt.
  
  
• Demand 13:  Women and Work:  The federal government must adopt proactive pay equity legislation.
  
  

Photos at the World March of Women held in Ottawa, Ontario
on Sunday, October 15, 2000