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FEMINISTS ATTEMPT TO HIJACK HOMEMAKERS' AGENDA

The federal Status of Women funded yet another feminist conference organized by the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC). This one was held in Ottawa on October 17 and 18th. The astonishing topic of the conference (astonishing for feminists, that is), was, of all things -- homemakers!

The conference was organized by NAC's affiliate, called Mothers are Women (MAW), who define themselves as "stay-at-home feminists", and another NAC affiliate, the Saskatoon-based Canadian Alliance for Home Managers (CAHM).

This conference was a demonstration that NAC has at last been forced to face the consequences of its long history of promoting policies only for women in the labour force, at the expense of the homemaker and the family. This conference begrudgingly acknowledged that not all women need or desire to be in the paid workforce and that some prefer to remain in the home to raise their families.

NAC President, Joan Grant-Cummings, was quoted in the Globe and Mail (October 25, 1997), as follows:

It's pretty clear to me this weekend that we're going to have to look for a solution that values women wanting to stay at home rearing children, in addition to public child-care systems.

Further, Carol Lees of CAHM was quoted in the same Globe article, as follows:

... for many young women today, the term [feminist] is highly negative. ... The danger in demanding the choice to work in paid labour was that one day women might be required to work in paid labour. And now we're at the other end of that stick ... There are always dangers. We never know what the negative consequences might be but that can't stop us.

NAC Discriminates Against REAL Women

Although the conference was government-funded and concerned a topic about which REAL Women has developed considerable expertise over the years, this did not prevent NAC via its affiliate, MAW, from going to great lengths to exclude REAL Women from the proceedings. Last August when REAL Women telephoned the main organizer of the conference, Evelyn Drescher of MAW, to request participation in the symposium, we were told that we would have to be willing to work within a feminist framework of equality and social justice (which means accepting a loose definition of the family). Ms. Drescher didn't think we could work within such a framework because of our 'virulent stance on feminists'. She claimed that the symposium was by invitation only, that there were 200 groups interested in attending and that only 30 would be chosen. In fact, according to the Globe and Mail of October 25, 70 women representing 41 organizations attended the symposium. Ms. Drescher said that MAW represented the homemaker and it wasn't likely that REAL Women would be invited to attend. She was right.

Even though this symposium was less than inclusive because of the deliberate discrimination against REAL Women, the pro-family viewpoint was defended by the Calgary-based organization, Kid's First. Their representative, Catherine Buchanan, from Airdre, Alberta, reiterated that taxation in Canada penalizes families which choose full-time homemaking for one parent.

She promoted levelling the playing field for single and dual income families by applying fair taxation. For example, a $60,000 single-income family would pay $5,000 less per year in taxes if fair and equal taxation was applied.

Conclusion

No one group can speak for all Canadian women. Women are as diverse as men in our views and perspectives, which are based on our differing social, economic, educational, religious and cultural backgrounds. NAC cannot represent "all women" or "all homemakers" any more than REAL Women can do so.

Before women can have true equality, we must have equality among ourselves and this means being willing to listen to and consider the differing views of women. This also means a recognition, not only of the dignity, independence and intelligence of individual women, but also of the fact that women require more than one voice to speak for their concerns.

REAL Women of Canada is based on respect for the life and dignity of the individual, as well as the importance of the traditional family, which we regard as the foundation of society. Many of Canada's 3,000,000 homemakers undoubtedly support these values. Unlike NAC, we do notdiscriminate against those who hold differing views. We may not agree with NAC's policies but we have never deliberately excluded feminists from any of our conferences.

Unfortunately, NAC openly discriminates against women with whom they disagree, while using the tax dollars they provide.

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