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Women Matter Canada's Statement on Canadian women's organizations abandoning women.

Updated: May 8, 2023




Since C-16 became law there has been a noticeable trend of long-standing women's institutions changing their focus from women's issues to those of gender non-conforming males. Women's issues are centered on the fact that women and girls have unique needs and experiences based on our physiology and reproductive system. Women face a range of unique challenges that are specific to their sex. Some examples include female genital mutilation (FGM), pregnancy, postpartum depression, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), menopause, and discriminatory hiring and promotion practices based on the potential for pregnancy. These hurdles are just a few of the many that women encounter throughout their lives and require special attention and support. Stalwart organizations that have helped women flee from abuse, supported women through rape trauma, created programs mentoring girls on boards, and more, are now centering transwomen, shifting the focus from females to males. This, despite the fact that under 25% of all CEOs in Canada are women. Despite the fact that research on women is still lagging (behind men). As an example, the Heart & Stroke Foundation released a report just this year that more efforts need to be made to bridge the gap between medical research on men and women. Despite the differences in how women experience heart attacks and strokes, there's a shocking lack of knowledge on things like women's unique signs and symptoms. To make matters worse, only a quarter of research subjects are women. Even though women and girls have unique needs and these organizations (such as the YWCA, LEAF, women's shelters, Elizabeth Fry Society, and others) were founded by our foremothers to assist women, they signed an open letter stating they would center transwomen over everything else, including women and girls. It has become increasingly evident that males have replaced females as the focus of Canadian women’s organizations. It is disgraceful that these foundations and charities are turning their backs on the most vulnerable women in this country. There are homeless women who have opted to stay outside of shelters because they feel unsafe around males self-identifying into women's shelters based on experiences of harassment, and worse. Women who've voiced concerns or objections to a male in a women's changing room have removed their daughters from swimming lessons. Some women who have objected to having males in women's change rooms, for a variety of reasons, have found themselves banned from those facilities, despite the fact that some of these self-identified individuals have a predatory past. They have found themselves targeted for trying to protect themselves and their daughters. What is disappointing and most concerning is that one national women's charity has opted to keep a trans-identifying male, who goes by the name Fae Johnstone, as a board member. This, despite well-documented instances in which this individual has (a) professed to wanting to stop women from speaking out at all costs, (b) declared that Vancouver Rape Relief should not receive any funding, and (c) expressed support for the violence women experienced at a Let Women Speak event experienced and that same response would be replicated in Canada. The only thing the women have done to illicit such responses was to have a different opinion or concerns that do not support Fae Johnstone's stance on gender ideology. These posts, found on the next page, range from 2021 to as late as the end of March this year and have since been deleted. The issues have been brought to that charity's attention, yet none of this has been addressed. What is as troubling is that when women expressed their concerns that a local YWCA chapter chose to use Fae Johnstone as keynote speaker for a women's award ceremony, the women were blocked on social media. The organization and many of the chapters chose to label these women as bigots. Women’s foundations and charities need to reflect whether they are actually meeting the needs of the people they purport to serve: women. And if they are not, why are they still calling themselves women’s foundations and charities? It's important to reassess and ensure that these organizations are making a genuine and positive impact. As concerned citizens, we strongly urge that governments allocate dedicated portions of their budget for providing grants to both single-sex and gender-specific services. By doing so, authorities can ensure that the distinctive requirements of women's needs are adequately met and catered for.
Women Matter Canada Statement on womens organizations abandoning women






You can download a PDF of the Women Matter Canada statement on women's organizations abandoning women:

You can find a copy of the open letter referred to that many Canadian women's organizations signed centering transwomen below:





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