Women

A Paradigm Shift is Happening

Nov 21, 2010
A “paradigm shift” was the theme of Dr. Marti Glenn, one of the keynote speakers at the 2010 International Congress of The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology & Health, which took place from November 11-14 at Asilomar, California. Dr. Glenn, who is the Dean of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, began by saying that,… View Article

What will it take to bring smarter family policy to BC?

Sep 27, 2010
Did you know that the BC government has set a goal to reduce early childhood vulnerability to 15% by fiscal year 2015? You can hardly tell by their actions. BC did introduce full-day kindergarten in some communities this fall, but other than that the family policy front has been rather quiet lately. The latest childhood… View Article

Women in the Canadian Economy

Mar 8, 2010
Last weekend, I spoke at a community event celebrating International Women’s Day in Vancouver. It got me thinking about the status of women in the Canadian economy, reflecting both on the successes over the last half century and on the areas where work is still needed to achieve gender equality. As a young woman in… View Article

The recent secretive, haphazard spending cuts should be repealed

Sep 23, 2009
Almost daily we wake up to news of yet another important program or initiative whose funding has been cut by the BC government. Literacy initiatives, high school sports, programs that protect women and children from violence, arts and culture: hardly an area of social service provision has been spared. These cuts have been devastating to… View Article

BC government should heed its own report on childcare

May 7, 2009
Do you remember the 2008 Throne Speech in which the provincial government launched a feasibility study on providing full day kindergarten for 5 year-olds and extending full day preschool options to younger children as well? Here’s a refresher: A new Early Childhood Learning Agency will be established. It will assess the feasibility and costs of… View Article

IWD commitments on my wish list

Mar 5, 2009
With International Women’s Day on the horizon this weekend, I’m looking for some commitments. Women are over-represented in low-wage work. So which party in the upcoming election will commit to an investment in BC’s social capital through a living wage policy for the public sector, including public contractors? Stimulating the local economy and adding to… View Article

Infrastructure – more than just ‘guy jobs’

Jan 21, 2009
Now that almost everyone seems to agree that public spending on infrastructure is a good idea – it’s time for another paradigm shift. Across the political continuum,  infrastructure talk is still all about roads, bridges, and transit – sectors that overwhelmingly employ men. But, to stimulate the economy, surely we need to invest in both social and physical infrastructure. Lets take… View Article