IWD Brunch March 8, 11 am to 1 pm
Faculty Club, University of Saskatchewan
Entertainment by "Moonshine Misses".
Children's entertainment with Beeper the Clown.

Buy your tickets today:

Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for children (6-12 years). 

Tickets available from Marie Green (Women's Studies Research
Unit) 966-7524; Tonya Kaye (Women's and Gender Studies)
966-4327; and Kate Hodgson in the Natural Sciences Library.

The new address is:

Women’s Studies Research Unit
Room 230 Kirk Hall, 117 Science Place
Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7N 5C8
Tel: (306) 966-7524 Fax: (306) 966-2141

Drop by and check out the new space and browse the WSRU book collection.

This is an excellent opportunity to meet members of the Women’s Studies Research Unit as well as new women on campus.

We invite Faculty, Sessional Lecturers, A.S.P.A., CUPE¹, students and others who have recently joined the University of
Saskatchewan community. As well, we invite Alumni, Retirees, and community members who are interested in
feminist and gender issues.

Please feel free to bring a friend and enjoy this opportunity to meet and talk about research, women and gender issues at this informal gathering.

Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Place: Faculty Club, Fire Place Room
Time: 4:30 - 6:00 pm (cash bar)

Please R.S.V.P. by Friday, November 21, 2008
Or for further information contact:
Marie Green Email: marie.green@usask.ca

¹The word CUPE was accidentally omitted during editing from the print poster. Oops - in our efforts to try to include everyone, we goofed. All CUPE members interested in the WSRU are warmly invited to attend the reception and we hope you can attend.

The WSRU October Women's History month lecture focused on pay equity.

First, Dr. Beth WIlson clearly defined pay equity - equal pay for equal value and showed the provisions in the Canadian Human's Right Code that led to the filing of complaints of discrimination. Beth described how difficult it is for an individual to navigate the cumbersome and time consuming and resource intensive process to achieve any result and how ultimately this approach is ineffective although there has been some gains when a case was brough forward on behalf of employees of the federal government. THe complaint model is also very difficult and time consuming for the Human Rights Tribunals as well and cases can take years to settle.

Next, Beth described efforts by unions to bargain for pay equity and while that has had some success in some workplaces, it's based on the "will" of each union to make it a top issue at the bargaining table. Also not all workers are unionized and not all unions are supportive.

She then talked about the route some provinces such as Ontario and Quebec have taken to pass pay equity legislation and set up Pay Equity Tribunals. This seems to work the best and has been more effective at making inroads on pay equity. Other provinces have released guidelines but made them optional and in most cases progress has been slow and only in certain segments of the workforce. Beth then gave an update on the Saskatchewan situation.

Dr. Beth Bilson talking about The Trouble with Pay Equity in Canada in 2008

The Trouble that Just Won't Go Away

About 50% of the 29% gap in wages between men and women can not be explained via differences in training, workforce participation etc and is attributed to discrimination.

A deeply troubling fact is that for newly graduated men and women, who have nearly identical credentials and time in the work force, the gap is definitely there and not budging at all.

Women may be considered "persons" thanks to the person's case and can sit in the Senate but there's still a ways to go in 2008 to close the wage gap for equal pay for work of equal value.

Why do efforts to close the wage gap between men and women seem to have stalled? In this presentation, Beth Bilson, chair of a federal government Task Force on Pay Equity that reported in 2004, will examine the evolution of pay equity programs in Canada, and will look, in particular, at the situation in Saskatchewan.

Thursday, October 30, 2008 4:00 p.m – 5:00 p.m.
Room 64 LAW

Everyone Welcome. Refreshments will be served

For more information, call the WSRU at 966-7524.

Related Resources:

• What is Pay Equity?
  
• The persistent gap: New Evidence on the Canadian Gender Wage Gap - 1999 Statistics Canada report
  
• Women in the Workforce: Still A Long Way from Equality - May 2008
  
• Final Report: Pay Equity: A New Approach to a Fundamental Right - HTML | PDF
  

"Some people see the issue of economic equality for women as rather outdated, out of tune with a supposed new world of opportunity that has opened up with higher education for women and a more equal division of work between women and men. Yet the fact of the matter is that, after many years of progress through the 1970s and 1980s, the gender wage gap in Canada has remained stuck since the mid 1990s at one of the highest levels in the advanced industrial world.

In 2005, the most recent year for which we have figures, women working full-time for the full year earned an average of $39,200, or 70.5% as much as comparable men who earned an average of $55,700. In the mid 1990s, such women earned 72% as much as men. The pay gap is even greater for university-educated women, who earned just 68% as much as men in 2005, down from 75% a decade ago. The gender pay gap in Canada is the fifth greatest in the advanced industrial (OECD) countries and even bigger than in the US."
-- Women in the Workforce: Still A Long Way from Equality - Canadian Labour Congress

Each candidate had a chance to give some opening remarks and then they responded to questions from the Chair and from the floor. There was no shortage of great questions and they ranged from questions on homelessness, changes in the mandate and funding from Status of Women, universal and affordable child care, what the parties were doing, if anything, to encourage more women candidates, international aid, their party's position on the report that identified a very high rate of women incarcerated for "income generating crimes" who do not pose a threat of violence to the community.

Moderator, Dr. Lou Hammond Ketlison, ably kept the forum on track and on time with the help of her time keeper.

Candidates - Amber Jones - Green, Nettie Wiebe - N.D.P. , Brad Trost - Conservative and Karen Parhar - Liberal.

A view of the audience

Sponsors:

• Canadian Federation of University Women
  
• Saskatoon Council of Woman
  
• Saskatoon Women's Community Coalition
  
• YWCA
  
• Women's Studies Research Unit
  

Location: Frances Morrison Library (downstairs)
311-23 rd Street East
Saskatoon, SK

Candidates:

• Brad Trost, Conservative
• Nettie Wiebe, N.D.P.
• Amber Jones, Green
• Karen Parhar, Liberal

Refreshments served after the Forum.

Sponsors:

• Canadian Federation of University Women
  
• Saskatoon Council of Woman
  
• Saskatoon Women's Community Coalition
  
• YWCA
  
• Women's Studies Research Unit
  

Never retract, never explain, never apologize -- just get the job done and let them howl." -- Nellie McClung

Find out more about Nellie McClung here and here (includes more quotes by Nellie).

Performances:

Saturday, October 18, 2008
7 pm Pie Social
8 pm Performance

Sunday, October 19, 2008
2 pm Performance

Location: Grace Westminster United Church
Tickets are available from St. Andrew's College, Mcnally Robinson, United Churches in Saskatoon and at the Door.
Adults -- $15.00 Students -- $10.00

Photo credit: National Archives of Canada (PA-030212)

Special thanks to Lou Fraise for taking photographs of this event.

www.flickr.com

This year's march will be held Thursday, September 25, 8:00 p.m.

Start from: Vimy Memorial Band Shell
Coffee House at White Buffalo Youth Lodge to Follow

Bring Candle and Noisemaker

Sponsors: Saskatoon and District Labor Council,
University of Saskatchewan Students' Union (USSU) and the Saskatoon Women's Communities Coalition.

Joan Borsa, department head in Women's and Gender Studies, will receive a Life-Time Achievement Lieutenant-Governor’s Arts Award for her innovative curatorial work over the past three decades.

She has played an important role in provincial and national art activity and has forged a unique artistic path in combining the multiple roles of curator, art critic, art educator, art administrator, art consultant, board member, gallery director, colleague, role model and mentor. - University of Saskatchewan Research News Issue 48 September 8, 2008

This lunchtime series provides the community an opportunity to hear about research partnerships between community-based organizations and University researchers. Learn how Community University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) works, and how it can work for you and your organization!

When and Where
Bring your lunch and join us for an informal gathering at the Community Service Village (506 25th St. E.)*
Board Room, 3rd Floor
Thursday, September 25, 2008 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

RSVP
*Please let us know if you are planning to attend at 966-2136 or by email at: cuisr.liaison@usask.ca*

The PERSUASION exhibit includes ads that are interesting and provocative (in a good way) that both reflect and challenge the 'traditional' understandings of feminine and masculine roles. The exhibits can be searched by theme. There is a theme for women that brings up 73 advertisements. There is also theme for children.

It is clear that advertisements are a popular resource for students interested in the histories of class, race, gender and sexuality in Canada. Ads are an excellent source for some factual information - i.e. the prices and availability of goods and services during particular periods. Their visual design and illustrations provide a flavor or ‘feel’ of past times especially prized by those preparing visual histories in either print or electronic formats. The reading and decoding of advertisements can reveal much about historical social structures and the acceptance or disputation of social attitudes and values.

Like other primary historical documents advertisements must be examined critically. The analysis should include their context within the printed medium, their relationships to similar product ads, as well as a study of any information available about the advertiser, the publisher and the designers and illustrators. Advertisements can be a problematic source for documenting the reality of social and economic conditions since they may be more representative of consumers’ aspirations than reflective of the reality of their lives."

Visit the exhibit.

In 2006 Neil Richards donated to the University of Saskatchewan Archives a collection dealing with the history of theatrical transvestism and gender impersonation. The collection was assembled in connection with research for his digital exhibition All Frocked Up: Glimpses of Cross-Dressing in Saskatchewan (2003).

The Richards collection comprises sheet music, programs, postcards, photographs, audio and video recordings. The collector attempted to represent many of the performing artists who crossed genders in their acts and the various arenas in which these impersonations were presented. An especial strength of the collection is the representation of performers associated with British music hall and with vaudeville, its North American counterpart."

Ambisextrous is a contribution to Saskatchewan Resources for Sexual Diversity (SRSD), a project established in 2004 to improve access to information on gender and sexual diversity available in Saskatchewan’s libraries and archives.

Explore the exhibit.

View an online gallery of La FEM coffee growers.from the Fundacion Entre Mujeres - Among Women Foundation (FEM), Nicaragua.

The reception will take place in The Windows Room at The Faculty Club May 7, 2008 at 4:00p.m.

Please come to welcome our guests and share a Fair Trade beverage.

RSVP: Miranda Pfeifer at miranda.pfeifer or 966-7909 by May 2, 2008.

People and agencies organizing / supporting the visit include: College of Medicine Internationalization Committee, former students of Global Health II (CH&Ep 412.3), Engineers Without Borders, Oxfam, SCIC, The National Farmer’s Union, Centre for the Study of Cooperatives, and the Canadian Cooperative Association.