Gender matters in Saskatchewan

Printer-friendly version

Margaret Haworth-Brockman, PWHCE’s Executive Director, spoke about the history of the federal Women’s Health Strategy, released in 1999, and how women’s health research across Canada has been  funded in the years since. This final presentation initiated discussion for the possibilities of a provincial strategy on women’s health and gender in Saskatchewan. The participants were clearly interested in continuing to meet together, and welcomed a women’s health network in Saskatchewan communities. Together the participants considered a number of examples across the country that might be a model for Saskatchewan. It might look similar to the former WHR network in British Columbia (an active exemplar in past years under funding from the Michael Smith Health Research Foundation).

At the conclusion, other suggestions from attendees included:

• “Continue to provide workshops, provide practical training as well”
• “It would be nice if this could be a (minimum) yearly symposium”
• “I hope the ideas shared today are not lost. A research day could build connections and create momentum for other initiatives and/or start a Facebook group”

In response to this successful inaugural event, PWHCE is providing attendees with a contact list, and will create a Facebook page. Other suggestions included calls for a Research Chair, a Women’s Health Research Day, and social networking such as a Facebook page to stimulate further discussion. Overall, the event left people with a positive outlook and focus on immediate, concrete tasks for follow-up. There was a palpable buzz of excitement.
 
For more information, visit www.pwhce.ca.

Carla Simon
Director of Communications
Prairie Women’s Health Center of Excellence

Some past women’s health reseach in Saskatchewan

At inception, Prairie Women’s issued grants to teams from universities and communities. More recently, PWHCE’s Board of Directors chose to focus its research on four pillars: Women and Poverty; Gender and Health Planning; Rural, Remote and Northern Women’s Health and Aboriginal Women’s Health.  Over time, PWHCE has facilitated, administered and conducted community-based research, using innovative research methods.  
For example, some years ago, an Aboriginal women’s health research committee formed in Saskatoon to research what would be needed for an Aboriginal women’s health centre. PWHCE supported with administration assistance, while the committee led the work on prioritized topics, hired a researcher, oversaw the work and carried it forward, talking to policy-makers important to them.  This initiative continued under the auspice of “Continuing Good Health”, which is still owned by Saskatoon women. The Saskatoon women’s committee met with Chiefs and Council and took independent next steps.

In another project, Prairie Women’s Health facilitated community-based research through applying the popular PhotoVoice method. The communities select the issues most important to them, such as PhotoVoice projects:

• Looking Out/Looking In: Women, Poverty and Public Policy, in Saskatoon
• Outside Looking In: Prince Albert Youth PhotoVoice Project, in Prince Albert
• Freedom from Poverty, in Regina

After training from a professional photographer, women use a disposable camera to take pictures that represent their experiences of living in poverty, and the policies and programs they would like to change or keep. The women meet to share their pictures and talk about what the photos mean to them. Their powerful images have been showcased in public showings, to broaden awareness of the realities of women’s issues and stimulate action for just social and economic policies to improve women’s lives. Based on lessons learned over a decade of Canadian community-based research, PWHCE now offers its step by step PhotoVoice Guide to teach others how to bring together small groups of women to capture their stories.

Today, PWHCE continues to conduct and support research in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, including:
Yvonne Hanson’s current research on Recipes for Hunger: SK Women Speak About Food Insecurity and Roberta Stout’s report, policy brief and webinar on Women’s Employment in Non-traditional and Resource Extractive Industries.