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Conclusion
It was not my intention to evaluate the
detailed content of this particular course. Rather I was interested in the
guiding concept, i.e., that women have learned very real skills from their
unpaid work which could be useful in the labour force. This is not to be
doubted, but how to obtain substantive recognition for these skills is an
ongoing dilemma. One of the graduates of the course described this dilemma as
an impasse:
[Even] the census does not value women's volunteer work. So I
think it's an unrealistic expectation that you can take and insert ... [women]
into the labour market. That doesn't happen. One day I hope to develop more
programs for women. I think the way to go about it is to develop more
cooperatives, to develop businesses with [only] women in them. Why insert them
somewhere else which doesn't want them, isn't going to pay them? ... There are
a lot of capable women and they have to learn how to take care of themselves
... [but] you can't compete in a job market that says you don't have enough
experience, [which is] what I'm told. I'm sure I've tired them out applying for
things. I think I do have the capacity, but in their eyes I don't. ... So I
think it's better [for women] to develop something on their own.
Paula Chegwidden teaches in the Department of
Sociology at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
- Linda Breault, "Turning a Male Training Model into a
Feminist One: Canadian Jobs Strategy Re-entry," WEdf, vol.5 no.2 (Winter
1986); Joan McFarland, "Five Views: New Brunswick Re-entry Project,"
WEdf, vol.6 no.1 (Winter 1988); Lona Smiley, "Women's Job-Re-Entry: A
Personal Account" WEdf, vol.9 no.3 (Spring 1992).
- Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, The
Canadian Job Strategy; Current Issues for Women. Ottawa: CACSW, 1987; CACSW
Response To: "A Review of the Canadian Job Strategy: The Second
Report of the Standing Committee on Labor, Employment, and Immigration."
Ottawa: CACSW, 1988.
- Canadian Labour Market and Productivity Centre, Report of
the CLMPC Task Forces on the Labour Force Development Strategy.
Ottawa: CLMPC, 1988.
- "New Beginnings: Back-to-Work Makeovers," Canadian
Living, February 1992, pp.112; Lona Smiley (see note 1).
- Patricia Daenzer, "Policy and Program Responses of the
1980s: The National Training Program and the Canadian Jobs Strategy" in Graham
Riches and Gordon Ternowetsky, eds., Unemployment and Welfare: Social Policy
and the Work of Social Work. Toronto: Garamond, 1990; Terry Dance and Susan
Witter, "The Privatization of Training: Women Pay the Cost," WEdf, vol.6
no.1, (Winter 1988).
- Mary Beckman, "Feminist Teaching Methods and the Team-Based.
Workplace: Do Results Match Intention?" Women Studies Quarterly, nos. 1
& 2,1991.
- Charlotte Bunch and S. Pollack, eds., Learning our Way:
Essays in Feminist Education, New York: The Crossing Press, 1983.
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