Hey everyone,

I really enjoyed the presentation last week. I would be interested in being involved in a Zonta group or a UN Women's club on campus. Should somebody contact Clare about this?

Video: Version 1 (not final!)

Here is our first draft of our video. It is very rough and full of information. At this point in the process, we knew this information was important, but we also didn't want to bore our audience to tears, so we became very frustrated with the video. We were overwhelmed by the injustices women face around the world, but we knew the purpose of our video was not just to focus on the negative aspect of women oppression. We wanted to speak about how far women have come (by talking about the history of International Women's Day and displaying inspiring successful women from the past). We then wanted to focus on the future - where women still need egalitarian rights (as outlined by the UN Millenium Goals). It was an exciting process. There were staggering facts that displayed the oppression of women, but also exciting facts about where women have come.

We knew that our advocacy work was to raise awareness to the attendees of the International Women's Day Gala. We can celebrate, but we can't just stop there.

We showed the first draft of our video to Clare and she thought that it needed some fixing up. She also requested that we change it to more celebratory, and she recommended inspiring women we could utilize, including Kim Campbell, Sandra Oh, and many others.

In a way it was frustrating because it felt like we were starting over, but we understood that advocacy work can be like that sometimes. But as we began to work on the second draft of the video, we had so much information and groundwork laid, that it wasn't half as difficult as making the first copy.

As a side note:
During our group process we used this blog as a mode of information sharing, but we also used email to communicate logistics (especially since our mentor checked the email much more than she checked the blog). Unfortunately, in the process, I believe some information was passed over email that never made it to the blog.

pics from the gala continued

pics from the gala

Add caption

Add caption

Thanks for posting the video and speech Jenelle. It helps us to continue the reflection of the work we helped out with and what still could be done. Thanks for the good group too, everyone! Have a great summer.

International Women's Day video

Hi everyone,

I know the video is posted somewhere in this blog but I just wanted to post it again. I just wanted to post an embedded version.

If you want to watch it in its actual youtube page, just click the screen of the video and a new page would pop up directing you to the actual page.

So I know we are planning on posting things from our poster presentation from class so I thought I would also post the speech that Jen and I read at the Gala (that Jen wrote)

We are representing a group of eight students from the McMaster School
of Social Work. Since January we have been working alongside the
Women’s Interval House in preparation for this day. We have been
preparing a video which you are about to see which we feel informs on
women’s issues and celebrates women’s achievements over the last one
hundred years.

We had quite the experience in the making of this video. The research
process began as a somber one, as we found that the plight of women’s
inequity remains all over the world. We also found startling facts –
how the wage gap still widens, how one in three women around the world
have experienced some form of abuse, and how the UN Millennium Goals
are still so far from being met worldwide.

But we also read about great women – about women who have changed the
world in many ways. We learned about Louise Arbour, the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Senator Anne Cools, the first black
person elected to the Canadian senate and a founder of one of the first
women’s shelters in Canada, Dr. Samantha Nutt, the founder of World
Child International which provides humanitarian aid to children
affected by war, and Margaret Atwood, a critically acclaimed Canadian
writer. These stories inspired us and reminded us that social change
is possible.

We’ve been learning in the classroom that social change is slow.
Problems must be viewed as public, not as private, and this can be done
through “consciousness raising”. People must remember that their
problems are not unique and result from oppressive structures. As
experiences are shared, people begin to mobilize to create change. So
where do we go from here? The inequities do not have to last forever.
Global attitudes must change towards women. Abuse can end. The wage
gap can disappear. We’ve come far in the past century. In this
country, we’ve gained the right to vote, the right to hold office,
we’ve had a female prime minister, we travel to foreign countries
alone, we’ve become CEOs, and we’ve left the home to go to work. We
can keep moving forward and removing the barriers that are in our way.
There’s three and a half billion of us after all.

So without further ado, here is our video:

I think everyone heard Clare ask us tonight, but who's all interested in starting up a group for Zonta on campus in the fall?

I would be very interested in this as it would be a chance to continue in our advocacy efforts for something we are already familiar with and passionate about.

She said that we should send her an email saying that we are in and she will act as the spokesperson to Zonta.

Would we like to send a collective email or all do it seperately?

So people in the classroom say that the event starts at 6:30 and it's here. Spread the news! :)

I think we should all meet in our classroom since we don't know for sure where the poster thing is being held. If it is not being held in our classroom then we can all go together to the venue. What do you guys think?

Thanks Kristen! So see everyone in the classroom before then. (or did you get any more info clarifying the rumour Jen?)

Miriam, I think that we decided we didn't need to meet a lot earlier because it's all ready, but I think we should meet maybe 15 minutes before class or 20 to figure out how to set it up with the laptop and everything. I can bring my laptop as an extra but I have issues with the sound so it might screw up

Also I do we get internet connection in class or do we need someones laptop who has it in the orginial format like Shannon's or Jen's?

United Nations information on women work and poverty

Here is the information that our group used from the United Nations Statistics Division while creating our video:

Work:
Women are predominantly and increasingly employed in the services sectors.
Vulnerable employment- own account work and contributing family work- is prevalent in many countries in Africa and Asia, especially among women.
The informal sector is an important source of employment for both women and men in the less developed region but more so for women.
Occupational segregation and gender gaps continue to persist in all regions.
Part-time employment is common for women in most of the more developed regions and some less developed regions, and it is increasing almost everywhere for both women and men.
Women spend at least twice as mcuh time as men on domestic work, and when all work- paid and unpaid- is considered, women work longer hours than men do.

Poverty:
Households of lone mothers with young children are more likely to be poor than households of lone fathers with young children.
Women are overrepresented among the older poor in the more developed regions.
Existing statuatory and customary laws limit women's access to land and other types of property in most countries in Africa and about half the countries in Asia.

Hey Everyone,
The work that was brough last night went together well!
Here's the info I had brought:
3 functions of the group:
1. A member of our group sent letters to governemnt officials to raise awareness and support for International Women's Day.

2. Our group created a video that outlines the history of International Women's Day. It depicts the accomplishments of women while nting various oppressions they have face.

3. On International Women's Day, our group participated in the hosting of a celebratory gala at Carmen's Banquet Hall.

The words I had brought for the learning process were:
confusing, overwhelming, incompetent, unprepared, excited

micommunucation, disconnected

plans, lack of necessary skills, brainstorming

editing, communicating, working

relieved, proud, happy

Good idea to put it in that word picture Jen! It looked great :)

In terms of the presentation next week:
- we are going to be showing the video with a laptop- I can bring mine and can someone else also bring theirs in case we have technical difficulties?
- Was the location and time ever finalized? I can come early to set up. Does anyone have gala pamplets to also display in front of our poster?

I think that's all the final details. See you on Tuesday!
Miriam

How we felt in this process

enthusiastic, apprehensive, inept, excited, eager, energized, passionate, baffled, committed, gung-ho, nervous, fearful, overwhelmed, incompetent, unprepared, confused, forming

miscommunicating, disconnection, storming, conflict, tension, pressure, disagreeing, friction, struggling, striving, challenged, trepidation, floundering, hesitant, unsure

cohesion, planning, brainstorming, solidarity, activity, liveliness, harmony, structure, initiative, strategy, ambition, creativity, progress, collaboration, criticizing,

editing, communicating, working, progressing, enterprising, improvising, norming, thriving, innovating, action, revising, examining, reflecting, nervous, uncertain, tentative,

relieved, proud, happy, results, performing, analyzing, evaluating, monitoring, accomplished, satisfied, celebrating, motivated, surprised, commemorating, growing,

Learned from making the video and advocacy

Hello everyone,

Here is my part for the poster thing. I was assigned to do what we learned about advocacy and doing the video project.
Learned doing the video project
•Not easy to create (i.e. Trying to make it look professional and presentable)
•Time consuming
•A lot of trial and error
•Teamwork is crucial
Learned doing advocacy
•Takes a lot of time
•A gradual process
•Required a lot of work
•Not easy to do
•Networking is important*
*Not sure if we should mention this. Was thinking that we could use the UN women thing as an example of networking.

Hey folks!

Here is what I have so far regarding the "Implementation and Advocating" phase of our group work. I'll bring my computer to our meeting tomorrow, if we need to put everything into one document.

Implementation and advocating

The process of advocacy while working with Interval House included the following:

Beforehand, part of the advocacy included contacting local politicians prior to the gala to find out if they would be attending or were interested in supporting Zonta International in some capacity. In speaking with them (or their secretaries), I was able to give them some information about Jared’s place, a branch of Interval House, and give them details about the event

At the gala, we presented guests with information about Jared’s place in order to persuade them to buy raffle tickets in support of Jared’s Place

Though we understand that using media can sometimes backfire, our mentor requested that we create a video to be played at the International Women’s Day gala, that drew attention to gender injustice worldwide. We feel that this method was very effective in portraying the necessary information, and proved to be a crucial to the implementation and advocacy processes

See you tomorrow, Thode B106 at 6pm!

Poster Stuff

ok... I got 1 big white fold out poster board, some stick on foam letters, glue tape, scissors and I have some blue cardstock for backing, if we need anything else that I forgot please let me know thanks....

UN WOMEN

Hi everyone,

 This is the contact info of the communications person from UN WOMEN (Canada chapter)
ovais.shah@unwomencanada.org

he said to cc: info@unwomencanada.org.

I think before we make any communications with this guy we should put together a proper proposal, and anyone who is interested should put together a resume. Then we will send it all together at once. I guess next class we can discuss it, but I really want to do it, I hope you guys do too!



I am going to look over the MSU site to see what steps we need to take.

See you all on Tuesday!

Next on the to-do

Hi, guys the video and speech was fantastic
I was wondering what supplies we need to put together the posters i can pick them up this weekend.
Kristen