Coalition for Women's Equality
Ottawa: The Coalition for Women's Equality condemns leaders after tonight's debate for avoiding the issues directly affecting women's lives, including women's poverty, violence against women, and critical social supports.
"Once again, the parties have proven that they want to continue to dance around the realities of women's lives."
"Proposals for child care, health care, housing and the elimination of poverty all require that parties consider the specific needs of women. No one wished to do that," said Nancy Peckford of the Coalition for Women's Equality.
Women's political under-representation was mentioned by two of the four leaders, Jack Layton and Paul Martin, but the absence of women's issue's in the context of debate is unlikely to convince women that Parliament is a place where women's issues can be discussed. For example, child care is not a gender neutral issue, though all the leaders portray it as such.
The Coalition for Women's Equality looked forward to the debates providing an opportunity for women to be able to decide amongst parties. Women voters in Canada need to believe that their votes will make a practical difference in their lives. Tonight came up short on information on which to base a vote.
For more information, contact Nancy Peckford at 613-292-7941 or Laila Malik at 613-241-7570 x22.
Additional Resource: "Parties told to reach out to women", National Post January 9, 2006 (link below).
The Coalition for Women's Equality (CWE) is a non-partisan collective of equality-seeking women's groups working to spread the word far and wide to women voters about women's equality issues during the 2006 federal election.
Related addresses:
URL 1: www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=bc647829-6e3a-4a5f-ba1f-d3004cb13...
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