Elect More Women Hamilton would like to congratulate all of  winners of the municipal elections in Hamilton and Burlington. Congratulations to the women who ran excellent campaigns, volunteered behind the scenes, won school board trusteeships, canvassed, and voted.

A full list of results HERE.

(image source)

It’s a beautiful thing. Thanks to all of the fabulous women that came out to our last workshop! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on March 23rd for our super fun workshop on canvassing! Bring your courage because we are going to be ROLE PLAYING and it’s going to be a riot!

*photo credit- Jan Lukas*

Crossposted at YWCA Hamilton Voices

Here are some of the highlights:

(via feministing.com)

The Government’s commitment includes:
- $250,000 for a three-year 50:50 Vision: Councils for Gender Equity program which will audit councils and shires to determine the status and role of women in leadership roles as well as their participation in the workplace.
- $100,000 in scholarship funding to enable senior women in local government to participate in the new Executive Leadership Program being developed by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government;
- $100,000 to improve the collection of data and reporting on the status of women in the local government sector; and
- $40,000 to the Local Government Managers Australia for their 2010 Management Challenge, which will involve around 130 councils identifying strategies to promote gender equity in their councils.

Hand in hand with the new initiative is a $20,000 six-month study of the causes of low rates of women’s entry into the workforce.

Femininsting does point out a few problems…like most of the ambassadors for the initiative are caucasian, with only one aboriginal woman represented. Not cool.

Yet, a step in the right direction. More women need to be elected to office and this initiative will most definitely bring some attention to the issue.

There is something almost magic that happens when a group of women come together for a common cause. Especially if the group of women is diverse in ethnicity, age, and socio-economic status.

Elect More Women was privileged to experience a taste of that magic on Tuesday night when over 20 women from the Hamilton/Burlington area came out to learn about municipal elections. Each woman was there for her own reason; to support a friend, to learn more about campaigning, to decide if she’d like to run for office or head up a campaign. The energy in the room was tangible!

Led by co-chairs Denise Doyle and Kelly Hayes, the group worked their way through discussions on how to build a volunteer team and how to begin forming a platform. With lots of laughter, questions and stories the group worked hard for over two and half hours.

While I can’t say for certain that each woman took home the same learnings, I was reminded of Margaret Mead’s famous quotation:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

It was so refreshing to see a group of women committed to learning, to coming together to work for change.

I can’t wait for the next Elect More Women workshop on February 2nd. This workshop will focus on Fundraising- a key  to running a successful campaign.

I hope you’ll join us. RSVP at electmorewomen@yahoo.ca

Who: Elect More Women and YOU!

What: Elect More Women Workshop- Fundraising

When: Tuesday February 2nd, 2010 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Where: YWCA Hamilton, 75 MacNab St. S, Hamilton

When will the first woman declare her candidacy?

Will it be you?

See the article HERE.

Thanks to Jan for the article!

She looks at what the Hill Times and CTV considered to be the biggest news stories of the last year.

She notes that the four Cabinet Ministers to be considered the “weakest” are all women:

And the nods for weakest cabinet minister went to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt followed by Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq who tied with and Helena Guergis, the Minister of State (Status of Women), and Bev Oda, the Minister for International Co-operation who placed third.

NDP MP Megan Leslie told the Hill Times that there is something very “telling” about the fact that the four ministers judged to be the weakest are women. It’s tough to be a female politician, says Ms. Leslie, because colleagues are less likely to perceive women to be leaders, or powerful, or in possession of the “chutzpa to get something done. (emphasis added).

Let’s make 2010 the year that we re-commit to changing our notions of what “power” looks like and lets stand beside and behind the women who are pushing the barriers in Canadian politics.

Read the rest of the article here.

See the Spec’s coverage here!

The Hamiltonian runs a great section called ” 10 Tough Questions” –check out some favourites here.