Thursday, March 31, 2011

Happy International Women's Day!


I'm a few days late of posting something in regards to International Women's Day, but I guess it's allright as I have had a lot of time to ponder about how I celebrated that day. On IWD, the Chaldean Women's Association took part in the Celebration of Women Under One Roof at the University of Windsor. We had an interactive display board where individuals could read this blog, look at some literature and ask questions about the purpose and goals of our group. I felt that the day was a huge success! Our group was able to get our name out there and because there were so many other community groups as well, we were able to take part in discussing different issues that affected us, and what issues they would like to see discussed on our blog.

This year, the theme for IWD was "equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women." This theme could not have been more prevalent and alive on this day. There were many groups that inspired me to see that our community is doing so much for women who require educational skills to land them a job in order be removed from living under the poverty line. The groups that I found to be interesting were the Women's Enterprise Skills Training, and Windsor Women Working With Immigrant Women. These groups not only provide the neccesary skills and resources for women in our community, but they constantly stress the importance of knowledge and education for women all over the world. These two groups emphasize that women's work is so valuable in our society, and because there is a constant demand for more knowledge and education within the workforce, these two communities take pride in developing innovative ideas that can help women grow, thus, empowering our Windsor community as a whole.

Last year, I took a course titled, "Women, Knowledge and Reality" and it showed us the different ways that knowledge is attained by women, and the types of knowledge that women feel are important to gain in order to advance in their society. By becoming focused on different cultures and how their forms of knowledge are attained, we can understand how different women learn, and their different learning styles. Education is so important and crucial for women who immigrant to Canada, and any organization that can help to enrich the lives of not just immigrant women, but all women in Canada is definitely doing it's part to strengthen the lives of women.

Here are the links to the organizations that I listed above.
Windsor Women Working for Immigrant Women: http://www.wwwwiw.org/
Windsor Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor: http://www.westofwindsor.com/

2 comments:

  1. International Woman's Day was a day to celebrate being a woman. It's a day when you appreciate all the wonderful women in your life, starting with yourself! This year the International Woman’s Day celebrates its 100th anniversary. Great strides have been made over these past 100 years in reaching gender equality: woman’s right to vote or run for offices are virtually universal, woman’s participation on the workforce has increased and the percentages of women earning college degrees or higher have reached parity with men’s.

    March 8th, 2011 I would say was very successful event at the University. With everyone’s booths up and showcasing their own groups and, it showed me how everyone was passionate about something they strongly want to change. What was special about that day was that everyone was promoting a cause or issue they thought was important to them. And for our booth, Chaldean Woman’s Association it was very successful because we were able to introduce people to a new organization that could be big in the future. The approach we took was to offer a small background about the group and let people decide if they would be interested in joining. We got about 7 people to sign up to join the group and the board, flyers, brochures and cupcakes were a major success. I really thought that it would be hard to start up a group on campus because I did not really know how people would react. But, after seeing the amount of people that showed it insured me that maybe it’s easier than it seems. I really enjoyed the different booths that were also there, one of my favorites was the roller girls booth. I never even thought we have a roller girl club that actual girl’s Rollerblade against other teams. I thought it was very neat because I believe the booth and the club symbolize empowerment. Being a woman and doing or saying what you believe to be right and standing up for yourself and I also believe that is what International woman’s day.

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  2. International Women’s Day was one word ‘success’. Having the opportunity to hold a booth next to other feminist groups was an amazing experience. You could feel the energy and solidarity that was going around advocating for change and growth of our community. Holding a booth made me question my notion of Third World feminism and how it should be considered a political category more than a geopolitical category. The Chaldean Women’s Association realized today that Third World woman represents the coalition building and solidarity between women who make certain political commitments. These commitments of women voluntarily elect to fight together to bring about social, cultural or political change. The imperialism, racism and sexism that constitute the existence of so many women impel some to unite in opposition and resistance. It was inspirational having all those women under one roof uniting as one to fight oppression and resistance. It made me proud to consider myself a Third World feminist. Importantly, embedded in the Third World feminist analysis of oppression is also the critique of many dominant Western schools of feminist thought. While feminist from wealthy Western nations had the privilege of fighting for the right to work and participate in political life, or equal pay for equal work, women all over the developing world were fighting against often violent social and political repression. In some cases, of course, this was a struggle for survival as well. The struggle becomes a matter of politics. Women carry disproportionate weights of the burden of being Chaldean.
    In thinking about today, I realized people questioned the notion of liberation in regards to Third World history, memory and experience. Memory of the colonial oppression helps maintain a standpoint on resistance in liberation efforts. History is checked with racism, imperialism, sexism, and other forms of oppression that form the background for political marginalization. By recognizing that human beings engaged in praxis emerge from these histories and contexts of struggle, we are better equipped to recognize the multiplicity of oppressive forces day to day survival. There are strong alliances here like the Chaldean Women’s Association whose aim is to focus on the context of struggle and resistance rather than the similarities between types of oppression. I came to the realization that history is recorded by the colonizers, and then it will, not only reflect their view of reality but also privilege their social position in the process-which clearly needs to be changed. In this context, liberation is understood as freedom from hegemonic culture and the freedom of all people to shape their futures according to their own visions and in light of their oppressed histories.

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