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IWY/75 THEME:

Equality,

Development,

By MARIA DUBOIS

From January 14 to February .

1, 1974, the United Nations’
Ommission on the Status of
een (Economic and Social
x Uncil) met in its 25th Session

tackle an agenda that staggers
a5 imagination. From the small-
a item — the IWY/75 postage
an a — to the most complex
ee cnsive planning for the
me dee Six years, the proposals
tore and discussed by interna-
chal, delegates will pose great
be €nges to Canadian women
a United actions, and indeed for
fi he copies around the globe to
Bht for their achievement.

€ idea -for

International
; Women’

S Year was inspired by
mocr. pecen's International De-
: oe Federation in Novem-
ae 71, and, having Consulta-
Status with UNESCO and
ae the WIDF submitted its
the cs2! to the 24th Session of
Shee ssion on the Status of
mosh where. it was unani-
Y adopted. Of course, the
Eton.’ and its member organiza-
Ligue — here in Canada, the
and ap Femmes du Quebec
Wom © Congress of Canadian
to 30 0 — have fought for 25 to
and years on these questions,
fhe continue to carry out
Well Own Particular struggles, as
Wom as uniting with other
€n’s organizations in the

Ne .
a amie situation heralded

ARR
Intensified Action
Namby- b “advi
COunni ey -pamby “advisory
fore” this! Backed by the fuil
of the United Nations Gen-

Ee,

3
tO) Calls for “intensified ac-

«
8 (8) To promote * equality
(by “a men and women;
tion © ensure the full integra-
ve} of women in the total de-
ea effort, especially by
sibti asizing women’s respon-
dey, mu and important role in
<-Opment at the national,
(tee and _ international
a. Particularly during the
Vel nd United Nations De-

pment Decade;

Ssembly, the Resolution’

and Peace

(c) To recognize the import-

ance of women’s increasing .

contribution to the develop-

ment of friendly relations and

cooperation among States and
to the strengthening of world
peace.”

The Draft Program examined
last month by the 25th Status of
Women Session at the U.N. rec-
ognized that there will ‘be a vast
variety of activities which can
find an appeal to all kinds of
women, of any age, and of all

walks of life, to stimulate their °

imagination and creativity. The
Year should demonstrate the
value of a unified approach (they
said) to issues of human rights,
development and peace, which

cannot be successfully dealt with

as isolated questions distinct

choses
vivantes

from each other. This is not to
say that many distinct issues,
within this broad range cannot
be high-lighted, as, for example,
as the WIDF singles out, the
field of Child Welfare, whose ob-
jective should be an instrument
of international law based on the
UN Declaration of the Rights of.
the Child.

Canadian Issues

And as the WIDF places the
issue most strongly: the need for
intensive struggle to achieve and
ensure the national indepen-
dence of many countries, and to
eliminate the remnants and af-
termath of colonialism. Doesn’t
this hit close to home for us in
Canada? Within our _ broad
struggle for keeping Canada in-
dependent, we must never lose
sight of the fact that our sisters
in English-speaking Canada can
only be free when we fight for
the right of our French-speaking
nation to self-determination!

The Status of Women Com-
mission itself points out specific
objectives, and calls on member
States and organizations of
women to set their own priori-
ties and objectives, based on a
thorough evaluation of their own
conditions, (as we ourselves be-
gan to do with the Royal Com-
mission on the Status of Women
in Canada.)

As part of the total develop-
ment effort, they see:

*(a) achieving full equality be-
fore the law (de jure and de
facto — is stressed: in law and
in fact);

(b) meeting the health needs
of girls and women. . . a pre-
requisite to promoting equality
and the full development of
both women and men in the
development effort;

(c) eliminating

(60% of all

illiteracy
illiterates are

women, a total of 468 million .

women) ... and _ ensuring
equality of educational oppor-
tunity;

d) training for women in all
fields . . . citizenship, leader-
ship, science and technology

Political Right of Women

Pertinent to this last question
is the information placed before
the Commission on the political
rights: of women. It is remark-
able to note the proportion of
women in the Parliaments of
various countries.

Canada 2%, Denmark 17%,
Egypt 2%, Finland 21%, New
Zealand 5%, Poland 15%, Ro-
mania (no national figures, but
over 1/3 of ‘local Deputies),
Sweden 14%, Ukraine SSR 34%.

Besides the challenge to Cana-
dian women to greatly increase
their responsibilities in Parlia-

‘ment and Legislatures, we will

need to stretch our minds and
hearts to find how to reach
every. woman at every level,
from the young girls in school
and their teachers, (the “Two-
Thirds Minority,” as Sybil
Shack calls them), still suffer-
ing discrimination in  subject-
matter, in sports, in recognition
for professional promotion — to
the college and university stu-

dents, already embattled in the
‘new Women’s Liberation move-

ments — to the thousands of
working girls and women, ex-
ploited even more intensively
than men via the super-profits
their bosses take from paying
them less — to that now less
than half of our Canadian wo-
men calling themselves “house-
wives” still — and our older
“women, at work or retired.

How can we work with all kinds
of groups and government agen-
cies now set up to work on
IWY/75, both to challenge them
and to cooperate with them in
the interests of “EQUALITY,
‘DEVELOPMENT and PEACE?”

‘Women's liberation and
the working class movement

By BARBARA CAMERON
Barbara Cameron is a mem-
ber of the Metro Toronto Com-
mittee of the Communist Party
and is currently lecturing at the
Norman Bethune School of So-
cial Sciences on Marxism and

Women’s Liberation.

Bo * *

The development of science
and technology since World War
II has brought an important new
section of the population, mar-

‘ried women, into the work force

and into direct contact with the
working class movement. The
expansion of the public sector,
in education, health and govern-
ment administration, and of the
service sector, especially office
work, led to a demand by mon-
opoly capitalism for a large
supply of educated but cheap
labor,

The largest reserve of this
labor was found in the home,
among women engaged prima-

. rily in housework. In 1951, 11%

of married women were in the
work force, by 1961 this had
jumped to 21% and by 1970 to
32%. In Canada in 1970 58% of
women in the work force were
married, compared to 46% in
1960.

Unlike the 1930’s and 1940’s

when the typical woman work-
er was young, single and child-
less, today she is over 30 and
married with children. The in-
volvement of married women in
the work force in increasing
numbers places important new
items high on the agenda of the

- working class movement: day

care; equal pay for equal work;
access by women to equal work,
to promotions, to job training
and to equal education; paid ma-
ternity leave. The growing eco-
nomic independence of married
women is also leading to a ques-
tioning of the traditional male-
female division of labor in the
home around household chores
and child care and of male privi-
leges at home and at work.

Phe first political response to
the changed position of women
in ‘advanced capitalist society
did not come from the new mar-
ried women workers, however,
but from single women univer-
sity students. In the mid-1960’s
these young women were caught
up in the New Left, which was
largely a reaction of university
students to the erosion of the
privileges .of university trained
specialists and professionals.
The decline in status of univer-
sity-trained men brought with it

e Continued on page 6

/~ WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL
DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION

SUPPORTS IWY/75 |

The WIDF Bureau, meeting in Havana from 30th April to |

5th May, welcomes the decision adopted on December 18,
1972 by the United Nations General Assembly to proclaim
1975 as International Women’s Year.

Women have made an enormous contribution to the pro-
gress of humanity. Participating in the struggle of their peo-
ples they have made considerable efforts, and at times,
even given their lives in the struggle for peace, national in-
dependence, freedom and democracy.

As a result of all these struggles women have won a new

place in society.

In certain countries women enjoy real equality and can
fully participate in social life. In others they have to con-
tinue the fight against discrimination even though their
rights are legally recognized.

The situation of women is especially difficult in those
countries where colonialism, racism, apartheid and fascism
exist. : i :

Women and children are too often the victims of aggres-
sion and war.

The resolution of the United Nations proclaiming 1975 as
International Women’s Year recognizes on the one hand the
contribution made by women to society, but on the other
underlines the necessity to eliminate discrimination against
women where it exists and to promote the advancement of
women in all spheres.

The Bureau of the WIDF believes that International Wo-
men’s Year must be used by national and international

‘women’s organizations and those organizations interested

in the status of women to develop cooperation and carry
out joint actions.

These action could lead to the convocation in 1975 of a
great World Congress of Women which could be the begin-
ning of a new phase in the fight for peace, national inde-

pendence, social progress, democratic liberties; the rights
a women and the future of the young generation. oe

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1974—PAGE 5»