News Archives - Page 20 of 25 - Maureen F. Fitzgerald

Wife abuse highest in Kelowna and Abbotsford

We should be ashamed that about 13,000 people in BC were victims of family violence last year. About 99,000 people across Canada! How can we say we live in a civilized society when almost half of those incidents involve men assualting their wives – to the degree that the police are called in. Domestic violence is

Sexual abuse of female farm workers is due to power imbalance

Recent research shows that female farm workers are so often sexually harassed that they see it as an unavoidable condition of agricultural work. As stated by Grace Meng, of Human Rights Watch, “It’s easiest for abusers to get away with sexual harassment where there is an imbalance of power, and the of power is particularly stark on farms.

What men and women do in the kitchen is very different

Katrina Onstad of the Globe wrote a great article in response to Time Magazines’ headline, “Men Spend More Time in the Kitchen” Here are a few of her insights (merged with mine). When men do show up in the kitchen, they tend to do the high visibility work, like meals for guests and barbeque – not the grocery

First lady of France attacked by media

Three attacks on a women leader in one article. I just read that the incoming first lady of France is single and although Ms Trierweiler is the President’s life partner the fact that she is not married to him is wreaking havoc. Why? Because certain people do not want her to sleep with her

Mining company funds homeless women

Now this is more like it! Silver Wheaton, a mining company just donated 1.5 million dollars to a housing project for homeless women and children in East Vancouver. This is wonderful. I wonder if there is a woman on their board? [Source: Vancouver Sun May, 9 2012]

Unworthy Creature looks like a great book

I am going to buy the book, “Unworthy Creature: A Punjabi Daughters Memoir of Honour, Shame and Love” by Aruna Papp with Barbara Kay. It seems to capture the difficulty women face when other women are being burned and killed in the name of family honour. It is always difficult to question the culture

Midwives program gets funding

You may know that women have been fighting to have midwives recognized by the medical profession for about 200 years. So it’s interesting that this week that in the name of saving money on medical costs, the BC government decided to give $2million to UBC to expand the midwives program – from 10 students to

I love the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards

I always cut and paste the full page of faces of women from the newspaper when the nominations for the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards come out. Many of these women I know, and many I do not. I am so please that the YWCA celebrates them across industries and advertises the wonderful things

Why do men spend so much on Mother’s Day

I recently read an article saying that men spend more money than women on Mother’s Day gifts. But wait. Something is missing. The article wrongly suggests that men are more generous than women and that perhaps it is because women have “conflicted” relationship with their mothers. The author of the article forgot some critical

Silicone sisters creates teen girl games

I just heard about the first all female-owned video game studio: Silicone Sisters Inc. It is Vancouver based and they have about 3000 (mostly teen girls) followers on Facebook. Good for you Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch and Kirsten Forbes. I am definitely going to look them up! www.siliconesisters.ca