In addition to the slow transformation of existing organizations by groups of women, the feminist movement has in the last decade developed a new understanding of old issues, and has isolated new issues which were not yet articulated in the late 60s. One main issue of this sort is violence against women which takes many forms--ranging from sexual assault, which feminists have redefined as a crime of violence rather than of sex, to the violence faced by women in domestic situations, battered by the men they live with, to street violence against women, and also the violence against women in contemporary pornography. It has been feminist analysis which has shown us the links between these forms of violence, the connection between the devaluing and belittling of women in our society and the routine violence to which we are subjected.

It is also feminist analysis which has revealed to us the crucial importance of reproductive rights as a basis for women's individual and collective freedom and which defines the range of reproductive rights. Reproductive rights includes the right to information about reproduction and access to birth control. It includes the right to bear children in safety -- the right to fine a health care for women and infants. It includes the right to give birth to children at home, to have the help of physicians and midwives. It includes the right to refuse to be sterilized, which women of colour, in particular, do not always succeed in having. Finally, it includes the right not to be forced to bear children against one's will, and there fore to have access to abortion, if one chooses. All these rights are implied in the words "reproductive rights" -- without which no woman can have all the other freedoms and rights of citizenship.

I have described in great detail the accomplishments of the feminist movement in Canada, because I believe it's important for us to remember how much we have already done against great odds. It remains for me to a sketch out quickly what I believe e we must do in the near future-- in the next few years.

In all the issues I have mentioned there are still significant struggles to be waged and victories to win women do not have meaningful reproductive rights in Canada. The incidence in violence against women continues and our remedies are scarce and getting more so in bad economic times. You don't need me to tell you all of it.

But, I do believe we era in a time of great opportunity for the feminist movement, and for advancement of women in Canada. We era also in a time of great danger since the struggle around charter of Rights, the feminist been struggling to hang on to our own institutions and services. The people who have been trying to help those institutions and services survive over the past decade of them tired. There justified fear of the effects of technological change on the future employment options and patterns of women.

And, despite the other advances we have made, the economic picture for women as a whole is wretched. The poorest people in this society are single women over the age of 65, two thirds of whom live below poverty line. After a work and service, they live without the basic necessities of human life and without the dignity they have earned. The next major group living in poverty are single women raising children alone. And the number of families which consist of a mother and her children is growing extremely rapidly, with adolescent pregnancy and the huge increase in the divorce rate. Women who work at home get no economic recognition of their contribution.