Below the Radar Transcript
Episode 3: Giving women a seat at the table 鈥� with Ellen Woodsworth
Speakers: Jamie-Leigh Gonzales, Ellen Woodsworth
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Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 0:05
You鈥檙e listening to Below the Radar, a knowledge mobilization project out of 312 Main. I鈥檓 Jamie-Leigh Gonzales and I work for 大象传媒鈥檚 Vancity Office of Community Engagement. This podcast is about bringing forward ideas to encourage meaningful exchanges across communities. Each episode we interview guests on topics ranging from environmental and social justice, arts, culture, community building, and urban issues. This podcast is recorded on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 0:34
This episode I鈥檓 in conversation with former city councillor , and we鈥檙e talking about bringing an intersectional female voice into the governing of our cities.
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Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 0:49
So welcome to our podcast Below the Radar. I鈥檓 here with Ellen Woodsworth, who鈥檚 the founder and external chair of , and is a former Vancouver city councillor and member for .
Ellen Woodsworth 1:02
Yes, and before that, 10 year organizer in the Downtown Eastside SROs.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 1:08
We鈥檒l start with what you鈥檙e doing today, like these days, what are you up to?
Ellen Woodsworth 1:13
Today鈥檚 kind of a crazy day. I come here for this interview, and then I rush off to pick up some rupees and malaria pills because I鈥檝e been asked to go to in India and be part of a meeting of 28 women from around the world to discuss female leadership in resilient cities. And then I rush to UBC to do an interview with about the lack of diversity on Vancouver City Council - again, more so than ever before. And despite the fact that we have 8 women elected, which is good but not enough. And then, at 6 o鈥檆lock I have to be at the Vancouver Public Library where a book called is being launched and I have an article in there about the abortion caravan which we went across Canada talking about women鈥檚 right to choose, and a few of us chained ourselves in the House of Commons to get the attention of the Prime Minister and the government of the day that didn鈥檛 even want to meet with us. This is thousands of us gathered in Ottawa to meet the Prime Minister and talk to MPs and only one MP came out to talk to us. So, that was back in 鈥�71. So I鈥檝e been an organizer and an activist in many social movements over many years.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 2:40
I was going to wait a little bit to ask you this, but since you kind of brought it up, what do you think of the new city council in Vancouver?
Ellen Woodsworth 0:06
Women Transforming Cities launched a in the 2014 election saying that women and girls work for cities, but cities don鈥檛 work for women and girls. And we had over 30 cafes in local neighbourhoods, at art galleries, at schools, et cetera, to find out what women felt were the key issues. And what we came up with, the most important thing, was to have a gender-intersectional lens on cities, policies, programs, budgets, funding, staffing, and governance. And so, in 2018, we launched the Hot Pink Paper campaign again with a Hot Pink pathway to a women-friendly city, and invited , an Indigenous woman running for School Board; , who was Chair of the Parks Board and then ran for council and lost; , who was the head of a political party running for mayor; Shauna Sylvester, running as an independent; , a number of different people from different parties, from different diversities. And talked to them about what it is that they were facing as they were running within their parties and then developed the Hot Pink Paper issues and launched them. And we thought we were gonna really see substantial change in the city because of the 11 key issues, there were 33 asks in combination with each of the 11. They鈥檙e all up on our website. We got t and Shauna Sylvester and a majority of the parties to endorse a majority of the issues and asking for everything from a safety audit of the entire city that would be developed with the Mayor鈥檚 office, and women anti-violence organizations, and then a plan to address violence in the city with a special focus on Indigenous women鈥檚 issue in the city.
Ellen Woodsworth 4:49
And then lo and behold at the end, Kennedy Stewart won, which was very good because he endorsed 32 of the 33 issues, and we had 8 out of the 10 councillors were women, but only 1 of the 10 councillors had any kind of diversity and that鈥檚 not what we fought for. When I launched Women Transforming Cities at city council, I committed the organization to keep at its core the memory of the murdered and missing women of the Downtown Eastside, and never to forget that. And we don鈥檛 have that diversity there. We don鈥檛 represent the unceded territory of the people of this land. We don鈥檛 represent the diversity of this city, which is 39% of Asian descent. We don鈥檛 represent LGBTQ2I, you know, it鈥檚 very much a WASP council except for Pete Fry. And you know, the three Indigenous people who ran were well-qualified, there were 4 queer candidates who ran - also well qualified. There were quite a number of people from the Chinese, Asian descent who were qualified, interestingly enough, mostly in the more right wing parties, but they didn鈥檛 get elected.
Ellen Woodsworth 6:22
So we are pushing forward with the call for a more gender intersectional lens on the city, on policy, programs, budget, funding - that means funding to women鈥檚 organizations, staffing - because if you look at the senior levels of government in the city, it鈥檚 not diverse at all. And we鈥檝e been working with the city on some of these issues. And governance - we need electoral reform, we need wards in the city so that people can win without having to be part of a party or without having to have money, and for women that means that we can include our unpaid work and our volunteer work on our CVs or resumes because people in the community will recognize that. You won鈥檛 have to have the parties, which themselves can be quite biased and can be run by people of power in this city.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 7:16
What was your experience like as a councillor?
Ellen Woodsworth 7:20
Well it was kind of funny. I was working down here and I was working on the women鈥檚 memorial marches, I was chair of , and the year I was elected, we opened the doors of Bridge, which is where the women鈥檚 shelter is now. And I鈥檝e been an activist fighting for free trade, I鈥檇 been an out lesbian fighting for queer issues since 1970, and one of the women I was working with, Georgina, said 鈥榶ou have to, you can.鈥� And I thought, yeah. You know, when you have privilege, it doesn鈥檛 mean that you don鈥檛 try to move forward if there鈥檚 a possibility you can gain some political power and use it for the people, then you do that. You know, you don鈥檛 not do something just because it will give you power. It鈥檚 how you use power that鈥檚 the critical issue to be addressed. And that you keep using your power for the people, and if you鈥檙e not using it for the people, then the people have the right to defeat you. So I did run and I was part of the 2002 sweep with and a whole bunch of other people.
Ellen Woodsworth 8:30
So I was out, I鈥檇 been out for many years and I was a known lefty. COPE has always been a left-wing party. It鈥檚 got a proud tradition in , , ran on a really strong, pro-rent freeze and mansion tax and have continued to hold a strong left-wing position. So I felt comfortable in the party. Once I was elected, it was a different thing. Mostly it was white boys, there were only two women elected, and we were both white. There was one Asian, of Chinese descent on council. If I didn鈥檛 say the word 鈥榣esbian鈥�, nobody would鈥檝e said the word lesbian. So, I said, in the end we have to do something about this as women and so we drew together a wide variety of diverse women politically and socially and developed a gender equality strategy in 2005, the first one in Canada. Then we lost the election! COPE split, Larry Campbell and some of them wanted more power, and they split and we all lost. So for three years, nothing happened with the gender equality strategy. So that was, you know, I learned a lot about politics and I learned that the civic level is a great place for women to get started and that women run for office probably because there are issues that they want to fight, where men usually run as a career move. So it was an interesting thing to see these men who I鈥檇 run with, and then they changed a lot.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 10:17
Right. And how did that lead to forming the Women Transforming Cities? Or did it?
Ellen Woodsworth 10:28
It did, it did. Because when I got re-elected I was able to鈥� you know one of the things in the gender equality strategy we called for an intersectional lens even then in 2005. And we said we have to focus on the needs of Indigenous women and girls and we said we need a women鈥檚 advisory committee that reports to council. So when I got elected, the first thing I did was that I said that we need to set up the women鈥檚 advisory committee and we have to set up a queer, LGTBQI - I think we were saying in those days - committee, a multicultural committee, and agreed, and so we did set up those committees reported to Council, and I was the liaison to the queer and women鈥檚 committees. So that was the beginning, and I thought what we needed to do was to bring together the women鈥檚 movement, academics, unions at the city level, urbanists, and I had the idea of 鈥榳hat would designing an ideal city for women and girls look like?鈥� But then , who had been an MLA and a minister for women and municipalities said 鈥淵our verb is totally wrong Ellen.鈥� And you know, you listen to her when she speaks because she鈥檚 really knowledgeable and fun and outrageous. And so we changed it to Women Transforming Cities and launched it in the Council Chambers in 2011 and haven鈥檛 looked back.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 11:57
Cool. So what do you think that we could do in Vancouver to actually, like what policies could we implement to make it a safer, more inclusive space for women?
Ellen Woodsworth 12:07
Well I think go on the Women Transforming Cities website and we鈥檝e got the 11 key issues that would make Vancouver a women friendly city. The first thing is that gender intersectional lens. Second, anything that you do, whether it鈥檚 climate change or violence or transit or housing, you need to put the gender intersectional lens in it, because women use housing differently, where we do 80% of the housework, so we use the kitchens differently, like often shelves are too high for us and the design of where the fridge and oven doors open differently. Do like what they鈥檙e doing in Holland where they bring the workers into the space where they鈥檒l be working, well the same thing is true for housing. If you look at climate change, women in their communities know where the older person is, or where the disabled person is, they do the volunteer work, they know the easiest way to get people in and out of situation, they know where the kids are, they probably don鈥檛 drive - 50% of women don鈥檛 drive and don鈥檛 own cars. So we鈥檙e using the cities differently and if you look at an obvious situation, say or the , 180,000 people were drowned, 90% were women. And in Fukushima after the nuclear disaster and the flood, they found 1200 women dead in their homes because they were doing house work so they were invisible. So we experience climate change differently, and we鈥檙e also are the ones making the decisions around what foods we purchase, whether we buy an energy-efficient stove or fridge, whether the kids walk to work or drive to work, you know these kinds of decisions about the need to have women at the table who understand women鈥檚 paid and unpaid work and how climate change can work, because we don鈥檛 have time not to have women at the table.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 14:24
So for people who aren鈥檛 politicians or aren鈥檛 necessarily involved in that world, how can organizers and activists engage with their local government or businesses? It鈥檚 sad to say that they are so integral in making these decisions. How can we put pressure on them?
Ellen Woodsworth 14:43
Well I think that it鈥檚 a new council, new mayor. The mayor seems to be very open to bridging the divide between the left wing and the right wing parties. All the advisory committees will be re-struck, so there鈥檒l be announcements in the papers or you can go online and get on one of those advisory committees. Women Transforming Cities have our AGM, Niki Sharma will talk about the lack of diversity on council and what do we do about it. We need to be engaged, it鈥檚 a year away from the federal election. We鈥檝e seen what happened in the States. If we鈥檙e not organized the far-right is clearly on the move in Canada as well. And probably, for sure the most critical thing we need to do right now is vote 鈥榶es鈥� to proportional representation. That decision alone will guarantee that at the provincial level, we will see one vote, one person elected. And the proportional votes you get is the proportion of people you get. And that means 8% more women will get elected - more diversity. And Kennedy Stewart has said that before the next municipal election in 4 years time, he will bring a ward system or some kind of a mixed-member party in Vancouver and we need to hold him to that, because Larry Campbell also agreed to that and COPE was committed to that, and then we were totally betrayed on that by a number of people who split off to become Vision. And we must really think and engage politically because whether it鈥檚 racism or sexism or homophobia or classicism, we can do something about that if we鈥檙e organized. If we鈥檙e not organized, if we鈥檙e not speaking out, that right-wing development that鈥檚 being fed by movements in the States. They鈥檝e funded 鈥檚 campaign, funded into victory in Quebec or 鈥檚 in Ontario. They鈥檙e working here too. We need to vote pro-rep and start mobilizing around the federal election and be on those committees at Vancouver City Council to make sure that policy really represents the true diversity of our city.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 17:10
Is there anything else that you want to say?
Ellen Woodsworth 17:12
There鈥檚 three things we鈥檙e working on right now. One is the Hot Pink Paper, which I鈥檒l get into. The second is we launched the , which is an online library of wise practices based on the Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda of the UN Habitat, and , the Convention for the Elimination and Discrimination Against Women. So we invite people who have women鈥檚 organizations or have developed good women鈥檚 policy with an intersectional lens to send us your wise practices because I鈥檓 off to India to speak to 28 women about female leadership in resilient cities, but there鈥檚 amazing wise practices all over the world and we need to share them with each other. We don鈥檛 need to reinvent the wheel, there鈥檚 some great stuff out there. So it鈥檚 worth going to our website.
Ellen Woodsworth 18:07
The third thing that we鈥檙e working on is a three year project with on systemic barriers to women鈥檚 participation in local government. So there鈥檚 lots of reasons to get in touch with us and work with us. But in terms of the Hot Pink Paper which literally is a hot pink paper with 11 issues and I鈥檒l just quickly go over all of them I鈥檝e referenced for you. But the first is obviously a gender intersectional lens on everything and then putting that on the issues around Indigenous women and girls, affordable housing, childcare, electoral reform, violence against women, the environment, transit, women鈥檚 work, pay and income, young women鈥檚 civic engagement, immigrant, migrant and refugee women and girls. And each one of these areas we work with people who are the experts in the field. We鈥檙e not the experts, we work with people who鈥檝e been in the field working on these issues and then we frame them up in an intersectional framework that鈥檚 tied to civic issues and then we take them forward and fight for them. So each one of these issues have a background paper that explains why we chose that issue and what it means and what we want from the electeds. And then we created a report card. We sent out the Hot Pink Paper and backgrounders and took them to each of the parties that were running and asked whether they would support the issues. So they could support them, they could not support them, or they could say what their concerns are about them. So all of that is posted on our website, and that will stay up there for the next four years so that we can hold them accountable.
Ellen Woodsworth 19:56
So if you want to get involved with any of those three campaigns, we鈥檇 love to meet with you or you can email us at womentransformingcities@gmail.com. We鈥檙e looking for fundraisers, we鈥檙e looking for people who like to be secretaries. We鈥檙e a completely volunteer-run organization, we have one desk in an open space office. We run because we believe in it and we believe in social change that reflects diverse women and girls and we know that we have to fight for it because we鈥檝e gained the strength of the #MeToo movement, #ItsTime, and Black Lives Matter and the Murdered and Missing Women campaign. Our women鈥檚 movement is clear and stronger but we鈥檙e not well organized and we need to stand together in face of what is brewing as you can see in the States is also brewing here and we need each other to survive it and to make sure that it really represents all of us.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 20:54
Anything else you want to add?
Ellen Woodsworth 20:56
It鈥檚 neat to be here facing a big banner from the 大象传媒 strike and I really hope that this space which is in the core of the Downtown Eastside where so many people of the Downtown Eastside were incarcerated, can really hire those people and create spaces for those people to organize and reflect what鈥檚 going on in terms of the opioid crisis or lack of affordable housing, homelessness, racism, et cetera, because this is a space we need to be using as an organizational centre.
Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 21:37
Thank you.
Ellen Woodsworth 21:38
Thank you so much.
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Jamie-Leigh Gonzales 21:44
Thanks for listening to Below the Radar. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Ellen as much as I enjoyed having that conversation. She鈥檚 pretty cool. I just wanted to say thanks to David Steele who composes the music for this podcast, and thanks to our producers Melissa Roach, Maria Cecilia Saba, Am Johal, and myself, Jamie-Leigh Gonzales. Tune in next week.
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