OUR HERSTORY
The Yukon Status of Women Council started in the 1970s when a group of women came together in a series of meetings to discuss the key issues that impacted women of the Yukon.
The key issues at the time were:
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the high cost of living,
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lack of formal child care,
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lack of public transit,
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lack of legislation preventing workplace discrimination based on sex or marital status, and
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the male-oriented and male-dominated decision-making power across the Territory.
Check out the issues that have shaped the Yukon Status of Women Council's work over the decades.
1970s
The Issues
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Child care
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Isolation of people in the community (i.e. transit)
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Access to abortion
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Equal pay for equal work and labour standards and employment
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Adequate housing
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Legal rights
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Medical attention and information
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Money and marriage, family law, and matrimonial law
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Sexism
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Rape
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Environment (pipeline)
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Women in trades
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Sex education
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Getting women’s opinions to the public
1980s
The Issues
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Human rights
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Sexual orientation
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Pay equity, labour standards
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Marriage law, divorce law, change of name law, children’s last name (hyphenate with both parents' last name, not just the father’s)
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Socio-economic status
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Gender equality
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Charter of Rights (1984)
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Access to abortion
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Women in trades and in non-traditional work
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Sexual assault and violence against women
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Racism
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Funding
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Childcare
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Ongoing process on how to collaborate with First Nations women
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Women’s health, mental health, and birth control
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Pornography
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Justice system
1990s
The Issues
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Poverty, unemployment, pay equity and money
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Oppression and racism
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Violence against women and domestic violence,
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Homelessness
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Racism
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Sexual orientation
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Environment
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Justice system
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Teen parents
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Women with disabilities
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Family
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Women’s health (breast cancer), mental health, women and aging, women’s body
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Child care
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The Constitution
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Abortion, birth control and sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS
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Midwifery
2000s
The Issues
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Poverty
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Homelessness
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Violence against women and domestic violence
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Family
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Environment
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Justice system
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Racism
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Childcare
2010s
The Issues
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RCMP and Yukon women and oversight of Yukon legal system
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Sex worker support
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Economic exploitation of women and financial literacy
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#metoo and #timesup
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MMIWG
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Homelessness and housing shortages
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Access to reproductive health care
2020s
and beyond
The Issues
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Heading into the new decade, YSWC has some major projects on the go.
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Many of the same issues that we were fighting to change persist.
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Rates of sexualized and domestic violence remain high in the North, while the mining sector has little in the way of regulations on their social impacts.
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We are also researching how stigma affects people who trade sex and what we can do about it.