OTL Blog

International Women’s Day is a yearly event that raises awareness about women’s issues across the planet, and has been doing so since 1911 after activist Clara Zetkin called for its creation in Copenhagen, Denmark. Created unanimously within a union hall called Folkets Hus (“The People’s House”), International Women’s Day has not shown any signs of abating over the decades. The ongoing global fight for gender equality and the end of abusive patriarchal behaviour continues to this day, and International Women’s Day is one strategy that brings together women and supporters to celebrate achievements while resisting patriarchy and demanding positive social change. It is a struggle fraught with challenges and nowhere on the planet has patriarchal oppression entirely disappeared. Ironically, one needs only look as far as Copenhagen where the movement began. In 2007 the historic and symbolic union hall where Clara Zetkin first created International Women’s Day was intentionally demolished – by a patriarchal Christian group calling itself Faderhuset (“The father’s house”) no less.

This year International Women’s Day fell on Sunday March 8, and in Montreal an event called “WONDER WOMEN” was created by local female artists. An evening of music and performances, the event was designed to “highlight the number of women who participate in Montreal’s cultural community and to raise awareness about the challenges that come with working in part-time, flex-time, contract, piecework, work-at-home, and other atypical conditions.” According to organizers: “These working environments do not provide a living wage. Rather, they keep women underemployed and in constant need of community support.” Living and working in the neigbourhood with Canada’s highest concentration of artists is a constant challenge, and many artists who cannot afford to live on their craft alone must work. As such, many of the workers on the Main lead double lives as artists, and “WONDER WOMEN” featured some of the best:

ANASTASIA LOMONOVA
AURESIA
BANANA AND THE FLYING COLORS
BITCHIN’ KITCHEN w/NADIA G.
CAMILLE McOUAT
CATCHFRAMES
CHRISTINE RIGBY
DEBORAH ADAMS DESIGN
ELLY ABRAMOVITCH
GRLFRNZ
FOCUS ALEATOIRE
JEANETTE HATHERILL
JULIA LOAN
KRISTI ROPELESKI
LADIES’ LUNCHEON
MAPLE FALLS
SUSAN MOSS
SVEA JONES
‘LADY LIKE’ DESIGNS

The evening was a truly interdisciplinary event with a vernissage of paintings and photographs alongside live music and theatre performances.  Strong and inspiring female characters peppered the evening, including Madonna, Freida Khalo, Rosie the Riveter, Lucile Ball and Wonder Woman herself.

Assuming the role of Lucile Ball, nursing student and bartender Eli Merkis performed because she feels strongly about gender equality: “Lucile could pull off anything – she could do it all. She didn’t want to fake anything about her life – her career, her dreams, her achievements – except her hair colour. She was a real pioneer and paved the way for women in film, for women in charge, and for proving that it’s not just men who can be sucessful both onscreen and off. She even broke a taboo by being the first woman on television to be visibly pregnant.”

Attesting to the popularity of the “WONDER WOMEN” performance was a packed house that cheered heartily all evening long. Erik Hamon, a male member of the audience, enjoyed the International Women’s Day performance because it “not only draws attention to issues affecting women today, but it also showcases extremely talented artists and performers.” Tim Hardman, another male spectator, exclaimed: “Patriarchy is useless. After all, when we sleep we are all equal in our dreams, so why not when we are awake?” Guests were invited to put pink handprints onto canvas to help create artwork opposing violence against women. These were sold later on, with proceeds going to women’s charities.

Behind the scenes, the organizing team is associated with an advocacy group called “The Main for women” who are putting feminist issues under the spotlight in for those living and working in the  Montreal historic site:

“the main boulevard has always been proud to call itself a liberal, all inclusive haven for workers of all industries to unite in the comforts of its cultural and material expressions. we’re trying to reinstate the values of our community by putting women’s rights back on the main agenda.”

A survey of female workers on the Main such as bartenders, waitresses, and other service staff reveals prominent concerns about the job environment: sexist attitudes and sexual harassment are prevalent from both staff and customers, there are expectations of objectification (e.g. “dressing up” to sell more product), it is difficult to get access to labour standards, getting home safely is no easy matter, and job security is non-existent.

Laura Nagy, one of the chief organizers of the collective hopes to bridge the gap between atypical workers, women artists, and women working in the service industry. She believes The Main is symbolic because it represents the main street of any city, and hence the best place to put women’s rights in the spotlight and on the agenda.

The Main for women collective plans to arrange a deal with ATLAS taxi company to ensure female staff can get home safely, and challenges are being launched against the hypersexualization of women through the group REBELLES, whereby sexist advertising has been culture-jammed with anti-sexist stickers. An action is planned for Worker’s Day and on May 4 organizations such as the CSN, Commission de normes du travail du Quebec, and WomenAware will meet to further discuss the agenda and take action against patriarchal oppression in the workplace.

Overall, International Women’s Day has once again proven itself to be a great opportunity to challenge sexist thinking through theatrical performance. Hearty applause goes to the female workers and artists who put the show together to raise awareness and challenge the oppressive patriarchal system that permeates our society.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 7:05 am and is filed under Activism, Community issues, Performance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.