What we're reading

October to December 2008

Where are the Women? Gender Equity, Budgets and Canadian Public Policy
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (2008)

Stephen Harper's Conservative government has gone so far as to declare, in 2006, that the goal of gender equity has been achieved in Canada . However, as Brodie and Bakker argue in Where Are the Women? Gender Equity, Budgets and Canadian Public Policy, not only has the goal of gender equality not been met but the relentless attack on federal social programs over the past decade has actually undermined gender equity, as well as the well-being of Canadian women, especially the most vulnerable.

The authors argue that the degendering of public policy and the erasure of the goal of gender equity from the policy process has, in fact, been a long-standing project, reaching all the way back to the mid-1990s. They describe how over this period there has developed a fundamental disconnect—a policy incoherence—within Canadian government. On the one hand, Canadian governments have been publicly committing themselves to working towards gender equality goals. On the other, these same governments have been subverting their own progress by giving priority to supposedly “gender-neutral” market-based policies at the expense of all other social priorities.

Major parts of this book are based on a report originally funded by Status of Women Canada (SWC), the publication of which was cancelled when the newly-elected Harper government both cut the operating budget of SWC and terminated its Independent Policy Research Fund. Those cuts later led to the closing of other organizations doing important research on women's equality, such as the National Association of Women and the Law.

A series of recommendations related to the governance of fiscal and social policy are provided in the book. Among them are: enhancing the capacity of gender units within government; increasing the capacity of Canadian governments to conduct effective gender-based analysis (GBA); and reforming budget planning and consultation processes to create gender-sensitive oversight mechanisms within the Department of Finance. All of these are objectives which the Canadian Women's Health Network shares and areas in which we have been active, especially supporting and encouraging the use of GBA in policy and program development within Health Canada.

“Where Are the Women,” can be ordered here: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/Reports/2008/09/ReportsStudies1962/index.cfm?pa=4C7EE651

Susan White
Assistant Executive Director

July to Sepember 2008

State of the Evidence 2008: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment
Edited by Janet Gray (Breast Cancer Fund, 2008)

This comprehensive report examines the chemicals and radiation linked to increased risk of breast cancer. “A much more complex picture of breast cancer causation than traditionally accepted emerges, one in which timing, mixtures and dose of environmental exposures interact with genes and lifestyle factors.”
Available at the Breast Cancer Fund website: http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=3266489

May -June 2008

Forsaken
Lana Šlezić (House of Anansi Press, 2007)

In 2004, Canadian photographer Lana Šlezić went to Afghanistan assuming that the situation for women in this country had changed for the better since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. Šlezić assumed girls were back in school, women could choose whether or not to wear the burka, and the environment was less oppressive. However, during her travels through the many regions of Afghanistan, she discovered the truth. Together with a translator Šlezić travelled unobtrusively and was able to talk to and photograph women and girls throughout the country. Those she met greeted her warmly but, without exception, they had encountered domestic violence, forced marriage, illiteracy, and a basic lack of freedom. In her book Forsaken, Šlezić reminds the reader that Afghan women do not need saving, they need help, and that it is the Afghan women themselves who are most knowledgeable about their situations. Through these moving stories and photos, the everyday lives of Afghan women and girls are brought to light.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix
CWHN Expert Review and Advisory Committee member

April 2008

All Our Sisters: Stories of Homeless Women in Canada
Susan Scott (Broadview Press, 2007)

Homelessness is a complex issue. Some of the factors that contribute to this condition relate to Canada’s social policies, while others come out of the individual’s background, health, and life experiences. When we look at what has happened in Canadian society over the last 30 years or so, it is easy to see why there are so many women without a safe place to lay their heads at night, and yet when we see a person panhandling or bottle-picking, it is alarmingly easy to blame her instead of recognizing her as someone we as a society have failed. Canada is one of the few countries in the Western world without a social housing policy; the result is suffering for people at the lower end of the economic spectrum.

In All Our Sisters, the author interviewed more than 60 women at shelters, drop-ins, and other organizations in Calgary, Edmonton, New Westminster, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg. With honesty and empathy, she retells their stories while highlighting the underlying problems they face. These include personal histories of abuse, addiction, and violence, as well as systemic conditions of gentrification, a paucity of affordable housing, and a lack of social services sensitive to women’s needs. Anyone who reads this can no longer turn a blind and complacent eye to women and men in desperate straits.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix
CWHN Expert Review and Advisory Committee member

December 2007

Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies
Edited by Sayantani Das Gupta and Marsha Hurst
(The Kent University Press, 2007)

Stories of Illness and Healing is the first collection to involve both the voices of women experiencing illness alongside analytical writing from prominent scholars in the field of narrative medicine. The compilation involves a myriad of women’s illness narratives including poetry, essays, short fiction, short drama, analyses and transcribed testimonies, as well as traditional analytic essays about themes and issues raised by the narratives including the gendered nature of illness, the history of women’s illness narratives, the isolation caused by illness, as well as the negative privilege of women’s illness narratives. The narratives and analyses span such topics as diagnosis, treatment and relationships to the medical community; social constructions of the body, sexuality and reproduction; family life and caregiving; professional life and illness; advocacy and moving from the personal to the political; and activism, education, and political change.

Carolyn Shimmin
Information Centre Coordinator

November 2007

Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman
Directed by Jennifer Fox
(2007)

The latest documentary by New York filmmaker Jennifer Fox is an intimate portrait of four years of her life as she tries to figure out what it means to be a free woman today. The film begins with the discovery that she is pregnant then flashes back six months to when her own personal soap opera began. Deeply conflicted about marriage, babies and her relationships with her married South African lover and her Swiss cinematographer boyfriend, she decides to take her confusion on the road and begins interviewing women around the world about their experiences of being female. Employing a new camera technique, called 'passing the camera', Fox creates a documentary language that mirrors the intimate way women communicate. Both intriguing and frustrating, once you figure out that, despite her travels and interviews with a myriad of women from all backgrounds and classes, it's all about her, the film becomes an engrossing must see to the last frame. Whether the film makes a statement about the current state of Western feminism is debatable. It does, however, ask some interesting questions about what it means to be a 'free woman' and about the struggle women all over the world face to retain control of their own bodies. While Flying has already made the festival circuit in Canada, it is scheduled to air on the Sundance Channel as a series in 2008 and will be released on DVD in April 2008. For a sneak peak, the Women's World section of the film's website features video interviews and personal stories from the women in the film.

Ghislaine Alleyne
Website Manager

September 2007

Maternal Theory
Edited by Andrea O'Reilly
(Demeter Press, 2007)

In the last ten years the topic of motherhood has become an established field of scholarly inquiry. This Reader brings together 50 chapters of the most essential readings in maternal theory. The chapters, arranged chronologically, theorize motherhood from three perspectives: motherhood as experience/role, motherhood as institution/ideology, and motherhood as identity/subjectivity. A highlight of this Reader is its attention to diversity as Chicana, Latina, African American and Aboriginal motherhood theories are represented as well as theories concerned with mothers and disabilities, single mothers, working class mothers, adoptive and young mothers. Bringing together writers whose maternal concepts have shaped the way we think about motherhood, this Reader includes works from Adrienne Rich, bell hooks, Nancy Chodorow, Sara Ruddick, Baba Copper, Patricia Hill Collins, Marianne Hirsh, Sharon Hays, Susan Maushart, Ann Crittenden, Daphne de Marneffe, Ariel Gore, Kim Anderson, Audre Lord, Alice Walker and many more. Concepts such as the distinction between motherhood versus mothering, the reproduction of mothering, maternal thinking, homeplace, radical mothering, and other-mothering are addressed in this first ever comprehensive anthology on maternal theory.

Carolyn Shimmin
Information Centre Coordinator

July/August 2007

Absolutely Safe
A Documentary Film by Carol Ciancutti-Leyva
Amaranth Productions (212-869-9780)

A compassionate and compelling look at the debate over the safety of breast implants, Carol Ciancutti-Leyva, in her directorial debut, begins from the personal (for nearly thirty years Ciancutti-Leyva's own mother, Audrey Ciancutti, has suffered from illnesses related to her ruptured silicone breast implants). Ciancutti-Leyva documents both sides of the debate; on the one side is Den ée Dimiceli, a healthy vibrant young woman from Houston, Texas, who has made the decision to have breast implants after years of insecurities over her breast size, and on the other side is Wendy Myers, a woman who was once healthy and energetic before having silicone breast implants in the 1980s. Myers believes that her health problems (dizziness, fatigue, joint pain, hair loss and nipple discharge) were caused when her breast implants ruptured in a car accident. Also on either side of the debate are Dr. Franklin Rose, a respected and experienced board-certified plastic surgeon in the United States who believes that breast implants, both silicone and saline, are safe products, while Dr. Edward Melmed, a unique board-certified plastic surgeon in the United States because he is one of the few plastic surgeons who is willing to remove breast implants without replacing them, believes that breast implants are making women sick. Ciancutti-Leyva gently guides the viewer through the double-speak of the world of cosmetic surgery to expose a deeper mourning that evolves from the realization that women's bodies are still the sites of violation with impunity. As Dr. Melmed even implies during one interview, breast implants would have never been approved had they been for men's bodies. A must-see!

Carolyn Shimmin
Information Centre Coordinator

May 2007

With Child: Substance Use During Pregnancy: A Woman-Centred Approach
Susan C. Boyd & Lenora Marcellus
(Fernwood Publishing, 2007)

This book brings together a number of Canadian authors who are working and writing about substance use and pregnancy, mothering, harm reduction and woman-centred services. All the contributors are directly involved in providing and managing services. The overriding theme is that of compassionate care to all pregnant women, mothers, and their children with contributors proposing that drugs are only one factor among many that shape pregnancy and mother, and although drug use is a risk, it is a manageable one.

With Child is an excellent resource for both practitioners and researchers, providing valuable information about maternal drug use, harm reduction, best practices and policy. It also provides a groundbreaking critical and feminist template for organizations in a variety of fields including nursing, social work, medicine, public health, child development and addictions.

Carolyn Shimmin
Information Centre Coordinator

April 2007

Canadian Woman Studies, "Canadian Feminism in Action"
Summer/Fall 2006 Vol. 25, Nos. 3,4
(Inanna Publications and Education Inc.)

[Excerpt from Editorial]

"Feminist activism in Canada is alive and well and continues to achieve positive change in the lives of girls and women here and abroad. This issue of Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme spans the story of Canadian feminism in action over the past several decades-from the fight for women's equality in the constitution to the use of new technologies to fight poverty, to the humour of the Raging Grannies. Some believe that Canadian feminism is irrelevant in the early 21st century-that Canadian women have achieved equality and there is no need for feminist activism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Canadian feminists are a resilient bunch-always ready to come together to advocate for what is right for girls and women."

Read the abstract for each article in this issue.

March 2007

Nursing Against the Odds: How Health Care Cost Cutting, Media Stereotypes, and Medical Hubris Undermine Nurses and Patient Care
Suzanne Gordon
(Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2004)

Nurses give direct, hands-on care and their primary mission is the care of the sick, aging, infirm, vulnerable, and dying patient. Having witnessed two dear friends battle different illnesses in hospital, I've observed the conditions that affect the nurses who provide (excellent) direct care. Cost-cutting measures in health care have hit nurses hard. When hospitals look at operating dollars, the large proportion devoted to nursing services always stands out, and these services are often cut. The author addresses this issue and studies the impact of cost cutting on the delivery of nursing care and on the nurses who provide it. She digs even further into the nursing profession and looks at the relationship between nurses and doctors, at how nursing is portrayed in the media, and the significant consequences this will have for the ability to retain and recruit nurses.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix
CWHN Expert Review and Advisory Committee member

February 2007

Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Third Edition)
Jan Riordan
(Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2004)

This revised and updated textbook, already considered one of the best reference tools for health workers on breastfeeding, brings together the latest clinical techniques and research findings to direct evidence-based clinical practice. It provides quite extensive coverage of breastfeeding basics: what to do, when to do it, and how to properly assist the lactating mother. This book looks at and addresses the many concerns new moms have during the postpartum period following her and baby’s return home. Of special note, the authors also address the special needs of preterm babies and their mothers. A CD-ROM containing digital photos (depicting situations related to breastfeeding) is also included.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix
Information Centre Coordinator

January 2007

The Handbook of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Public Health: A Practitioner's Guide to Service
Edited by Michael D. Shankle
(Harrington Park Press, 2005)

Lesbians, bisexual and transgendered women often face many barriers that prevent them from gaining access to adequate healthcare services, and that negatively affect their health. Barriers include homophobia, heterosexism, healthcare professionals who are not trained about the healthcare needs of these populations, and dis/mis information about specific health problems and concerns. This publication brings together into a single volume the various research to date on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health. Readers are given access to practical theories and solutions for overcoming the problems and disparities experienced by this community.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix
Information Centre Coordinator

December 2006

The Adventures of Carrie Giver: The Cost of Caring
Theresa Funiciello, Diane Pagen, Eduordo Savid, Winona Nelson, Rob Hawkins

Just for the record, I am a big comic book geek. I’ll never turn down
the chance to review a new comic series, particularly if it stars a
super-heroine (preferably in costume). So imagine my delight when I came
across this new title, which aims to highlight the costs and burdens of
unpaid caregiving on women! Our super heroine, Carrie Giver, and her
alter ego, Carrie Miller, battle everyday prejudices and save people
from life-altering hazards of chance or circumstance (as well as the
occasional boogeyman). This is a very American story, but can still be
entertaining, not to mention informative, for Canadian audiences. Using
comics as a way to talk about the value of caregiving, to both children
and older people, is new, and hopefully, Carrie Giver’s adventures will
continue.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix
Information Centre Coordinator

November 2006

Gestational Diabetes: What to Expect: Your Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy and a Happy, Healthy Baby (Fifth Edition)
(American Diabetes Association, 2005)

Gestational diabetes is not something you want to hear about when you're pregnant. It can leave you feeling quite anxious and overwhelmed. You have plans for your pregnancy and your new baby, and learning you have diabetes may cause you to worry about your baby's health. Luckily, this book, written in clear, plain language, offers all the information you need to help you understand what you need to do to stay healthy and have a healthy baby. The book covers many topics, including: learning about what you need to do to stay well, information on insulin therapy, exercise and pregnancy, nutrition, how to monitor gestational diabetes, and sample meal plans.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix
Information Centre Coordinator

July 2006

The Birth House
Ami McKay
(Knopf Canada, 2006)

And now for something completely different. our first fiction review! Set in Scots Bay, Nova Scotia, The Birth House tells the story of a midwife, Dora Rare around the First World War. However, change is in the air as a doctor sets up his practice in the area. He promises painless childbirth by using the newest technologies and scientific knowledge. The conflict between traditional knowledge of the midwife and the new and modern medical knowledge weaves it way throughout the whole story. This is a celebration of women's ways of knowing and an examination of the role that midwives played in communities at that time. Through Dora, McKay tells us not only the extraordinary life of one woman; she also captures a moment of our social history. Reminding us that the personal is definitely political.

Mona Dupré-Ollinik
Outreach Coordinator

June 2006

Criminalizing Women: Gender and (In)Justice in Neo-Liberal Times
Edited by Gillian Balfour and Elizabeth Comack
(Fernwood Publishing, 2006)

This recently released edited collection is an exploration of the issues feminist thought brings to the field of criminology. Women and women's relationships to the criminal justice system are often overlooked within the context of the criminology canon. This book demonstrates the broad range of work in this area being done by feminists that considers the conditions of women's lives and analysis of systemic oppression. Criminalizing Women is a book that both provides space for criminalized women's narratives and, with a section on making change, it looks to the future with a toolbox full of feminist strategies to be used to address the issues revealed by these narratives.

Kim Parry
Program Assistant

May 2006

Relative Stranger: A Life After Death
By Mary Loudon
(Doubleday Canada, 2006)

Mary Loudon's book is a remembrance of her sister Catherine's life. It is also the documenting of the author's journey to uncover and tell that story. Catherine lived with schizophrenia; an illness that had profound effects on the way she lived her life and on her family. Loudon's memories of growing up with her sister and of trying to maintain a relationship (mostly in vain) are explored after Catherine's death from cancer. She effectively weaves in stories and memories with useful information about what it means to live with schizophrenia. I found this book worked to undo some of the rigid definitions of mental illness and normality and created a story that we could all learn from.

"Our lives are predicated upon basic cultural certainties. Among the most critical of these certainties is that life should be lived within particular parameters and that human beings possess, if you like, a default setting of normality from which any significant deviation may be regarded as a cause for concern or worse. That our ideas of normal behaviour are so firmly established allows many people genuinely to wonder what a life is for if it is lived on the border of sanity. it allows them to uphold the belief that life is only worth living or, more serious still, that you are only worth your life as long as you are reasonably happy, well and rational" (Loudon, 2006, p. 334).

Kim Parry
Program Assistant

April 2006

Making Lesbians Visible in the Substance Use Field
Edited by Elizabeth Ettorre
(Harrington Park Press, 2005)

Lesbians and bisexual women are more likely than heterosexual women to report alcohol and substance abuse, yet existing alcohol and drug services are inadequate to meet the needs of this community. Substance use for these women is often enmeshed in issues relating to sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or making connections with queer people and communities. Lesbian substance users aren't able to bring forward the whole of their experiences when they are in environments that are non-supportive and where they experience homophobia. They become invisible. This book is a step in helping to create environments in which the hurt of invisibility can begin to be healed. The various papers captured here highlight how a lesbian sensitive perspective on lesbian health and substance use can shed new light on this neglected research area, as well as illuminate important areas of concern for treaters and researchers alike.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix, BSc, MLS
Information Centre Coordinator

March 2006

Sky Woman: Indigenous Women Who Have Shaped, Moved or Inspired Us
Edited by Sandra Laronde
(Theytus Books Ltd., 2005)

Earth and creation, as we know it, was born when Sky Woman fell from the stars through a hole in the sky. Since then, Indigenous women have inherited her legacy-resourcefulness, resilience and the will to keep falling and moving forward. They fall to better ground because of the many women who have gone before them. This book gathers memoirs, poetry, fiction and visual arts from nearly 40 writers and artists from 22 Indigenous nations from across Canada, the United States, Mexico, the Pacific Islands and Japan. These women, all from different generations, speak from the heart about the many Indigenous women who have shaped, moved or inspired them.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix, BSc, MLS
Information Centre Coordinator

February 2006

Dragonslippers: This Is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like
Rosalind B. Penfold
(Penguin Canada, 2005)

When Rosalind met Brian, she thought she was living a fairytale romance. And she did, briefly, until things began to change. It didn't take long for her to find herself in a nightmare of verbal, emotional, sexual and physical abuse. Eventually, she found the strength to move on and move out, but not without great loss. The author shares her experiences with us through her diaries from that time, drawings that detail the warning signs of abuse and the psychology of abusers and victims. She's given us a graphic novel (or un-fairytale) that nevertheless has a happy ending.

Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix, BSc, MLS
Information Centre Coordinator

January 2006

Hungry for More
A Keeping-It-Real Guide for Black Women on Weight and Body Image
Robyn McGee
(Seal Press, 2005)

Straight-talking and sympathetic, Robyn McGee's Hungry for More is not a book about dieting. It is about the obesity epidemic in the African American community and, about the daily challenges Black women face economically, culturally, and socially that contribute to disordered eating and body image. It is about the real dangers of gastric bypass surgery. Finally, it is about her own sister's lifelong struggle with obesity and depression, which led to her untimely death. Hungry for More takes a holistic approach to weight and and its health, social, and cultural implications. Full of informative medical facts, personal stories and frank examinations of how racism, abuse and depression contribute to poor body image, McGee conveys the importance of honouring yourself by making healthy lifestyle choices, starting slow and being patient, seeking help when you need it, and remembering that you are much more than a number on a scale. With the memory of her sister firmly in mind, McGee's message is that unless we change what's in our hearts and minds, no amount of surgery will make us feel whole.

Ghislaine Alleyne
Web Site Manager