MJ Transition House honours International Women’s Day; says there’s still more work to do
In honoring International Women’s Day, the Moose Jaw Transition House celebrated women’s achievements across the world.
Guest speaker Joanne Dusel highlighted some of Canada’s progress in helping women to achieve equality. Dusel, the Executive Director, Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan, says even though some progress has been made, there is still lots more work to be done in obtaining equality for all women, across all sectors. “We want to recognize the many women who’ve come before us and have done a lot of work to get us where we are today in terms of approaching equality and to push for this day as well as some of the equalities we’ve achieved like the right to vote, own property and to be considered persons under the law.”
Dusel highlighted that there is still a wide gap in inequality in many sectors across Canada. “We know that the goal of the women’s movement has been social, economic and political equality for all and we also know that there is still more to do. Like where are we with the wage gap? In Canada, women who work fulltime, earn 74 cents for every $1 earned by men in 2014. I was surprised by the statistics, however, in Saskatchewan we do have a higher average wage for women which is a good thing that our province can be proud of. However, there are still some discrepancies to look at because we do know also that racialized women earn less so that is something to look at across the board.”
She also noted that violence against women is something that also has to be continuously looked at in moving forward in bettering the lives of women. She shared national and provincial statistics which shows the prominence of violence against women. “Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. Approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. Saskatchewan has over double the national per capita rate of police reported intimate partner violence (IPV). We’re also at the top of the charts in sexual assault, abuse of children youth and abuse of seniors.”
Dusel says that Saskatchewan has taken steps towards preventing some of these occurrences. “I want to ac- knowledge that Saskatchewan has made good moves within the last year or so. In 2017, Saskatchewan completed a domestic violence review process. Many of those recommendations could form the basis of an action plan to end violence against women or reduce it,” she said. Dusel applauded men who have become allies in women’s movements across the world and encouraged others to do the same. “We are also proud of the different campaigns that have come up to advocate against violence against women. Men are also becoming allies of the movement. I encourage everyone to be part of the global movement for change.” This year’s theme for International Women’s Day was #PressForProgress.
The Moose Jaw Transition House has been part of the community since 1978. Their vision is to provide safety for the present and empowerment for the future. Their mission is to work toward ending the cycle of abuse and violence within the MJ & District community by providing emergency shelter, support, advocacy, education and referral.