Winnipeg Workshops
Facilitators: Jennifer deGroot & Becky Thiessen
Participants: 10 women
“We need to turn around and share this information
so that our society does not have these misconceptions.”
— Workshop Participant
The following ideas were generated by workshop participants as part of our gender budget consultations. Please note that this list does not represent the official position of the UN Platform for Action Committee Manitoba (UNPAC). Neither UNPAC nor all of the participants have endorsed these suggestions.
1. What are key concerns for women in your community?
- Education
- Quality
- Cost of tuition
- Availability of spots in certain faculties
- Number of years it takes
- Advanced PSE
- People who cannot afford to pay should still be able to go to university (like in Europe)
- Housing
- Why is it so expensive?
- Where are we going to live?
- Jobs
- Current
- Future
- Role segregation in employment
- So many jobs are based on one’s appearance
- Justice system
- Is it actually working?
- Do jails work? Rehabilitation?
- Sentencing related to crimes against women
– Will rape victims come forward?
- Crimes against children
– Sex offenders sentences not long enough
- Percentage of provincial budget for Justice should be higher
- More programs to reintegrate people in community (though perhaps some people should not be back in the community)
- Retirement
- By the time we retire, will there be enough money?
- Health care
- Dental, eye and prescription drugs are all very expensive
- How will be pay for things when we move out and are not on our parents’ health plan?
2. a) What Government programs and services have really worked to meet women’s needs and concerns? How could they be expanded upon or made better?
- Women’s shelters
- Need more spaces / programs
- Daycare
- Need more spaces and more options
- Libraries
- Pre-natal care
- Teachers / Schools
- Women’s Hospital and Women’s Health Clinic
- Walk-in clinics
- Aids and assists on busses for strollers and wheelchairs
- Continuing education
- Maternity / paternity leave
- Public bathrooms
- Tampon dispensers, baby change tables
“I am so surprised because I don’t see poverty everyday in Winnipeg.
Living in the suburbs nobody tells us about these issues.”
2. b) What ideas do you have for programs and services that could meet women’s needs?
- Raise awareness about how women fit into the economy (make a television commercial)
- More emphasis on educating women
- More accessibility to employment statistics
- Persuade more women to vote and speak out
- Mentorship system — women helping women
- For new immigrant women so they are aware of the system and services
- For women who are recently divorced
- Educate young women about their potential and opportunities
- Make women’s studies a compulsory class in high school
- Provincial curriculum
- in each class, there should be a unit on women e.g. Women in history
- Raise awareness that poverty exists here
- More access to financial counselling
3. What ideas do you have on how the Government could earn more money? Examples include: raising existing taxes, introducing new taxes, or stopping programs that don’t work. Use the creativity you have learned from your experience as a woman living with a tight budget.
- Provide services like daycare for people on social assistance, so they can work and pay taxes
- Stricter guidelines on where money is being spent
- Cut back on unnecessary expenses, example: Spirited Energy
TAKE ACTION!
- Raise awareness
- Tell your friends, family, neighbours
- Get it into the media
- Lobby Government
- In person
- Picket / protest
- Phone
- Write a letter
- Sign up for campaigns like ‘Make Poverty History’
