North America | Canada | Career

‘Where’s your husband?’: Women in farming still fighting against old boys’ club

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Amanda Brodhagen knows a lot of people wouldn't peg her as a farmer. She's young — just 28. She's not tall — just five feet. And she's a woman. But she also knows she's in line to take over her family's farm in southwestern Ontario and become the fifth generation to run an operation that looks after a 100-head herd of beef cattle and grows corn, grain and hay. "A lot of people ask me … 'So why do you farm?'" says Brodhagen, who works part-time on the farm and part-time for the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association.
North America | Canada | Career

Alison Larkin, P.E.I.’s 1st female fire chief: No more ‘boys club’

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At just 27 years old, P.E.I. resident Alison Larkin was already a 10-year veteran of the North Rustico Fire Department and looking for a new challenge. The new mom — her son Garrett is seven months old — had also been a paramedic for seven years, so she knows how to respond quickly to emergencies and doesn't mind the stress. Two months ago, the town appointed her fire chief. "The opportunity came up, and I just took it," said Larkin. "I figured that I could do that. I like people, I can manage people, and that's kind of what my role is now."
North America | Canada | Activism

Dancer Santee Smith offers a new way to consider indigenous women’s issues

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Award-winning choreographer and dancer Santee Smith wanted to think about indigenous women’s issues in a new way. She wanted to incite a fresh dialogue on women, reconciliation and healing – and part of that dialogue meant reframing the idea of “truths.” By assembling a team of internationally renowned indigenous women artists, she’s put together an interdisciplinary show called Re-Quickening, which opens at Toronto’s Fleck Dance Theatre next week. The Globe and Mail caught up with Smith in Toronto. Read the full interview at the source.
North America | Canada | Economy

Women outnumber men on council of economic advisers

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Women will outnumber men on what could turn out to be the most-influential group of people around Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau. The Canadian Press has learned that Morneau will unveil the federal government's new advisory council Friday -- a team that will help draw up a plan designed to get Canada's economy out of a rut. In total, the lineup of business and academic leaders will include eight women and six men. The advisers, who will be paid a salary of $1, are responsible for helping the government prepare a long-term growth strategy that will be r
North America | Canada | Politics

Group of female elected officials aims to promote women in politics

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A networking group aiming to promote the participation of women in Off-Island politics at various levels of government was launched in Les Coteaux on March 8, International Women’s Day. Femmes d’Ici Vaudreuil-Soulanges is spearheaded by Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot Mayor Danie Deschênes. Deschênes said politics remains a mainly male-dominated world when it comes to the makeup of town councils in the region. The group will meet casually every few months, over breakfast or 5-à-7s, to discuss concerns facing the community or municipalities, but not necessarily female centric issues,
North America | Canada | Science

McGill astrophysicist is first woman to win Canada’s top science award

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A McGill University astrophysicist known for her exacting studies of some of the strangest and most powerful stars in the universe has won the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal, Canada’s top science prize. Victoria Kaspi, director of the McGill Space Institute, is the first woman to claim the prestigious award in its 25-year history, a startling reminder of the overwhelming gender imbalance that persists at the highest levels of Canadian academia. A dearth of female professors in science faculties across Canada helps explain why it has taken so long for a woman to win the Herzberg gold medal, Dr
North America | Canada | Politics

Prominent indigenous women’s advocate joins NDP race in Winnipeg

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A prominent advocate who has advised the Manitoba government on indigenous women’s issues for years is now seeking a seat in the legislature. Nahanni Fontaine announced Friday she would run for the New Democratic Party nomination in the Winnipeg riding of St. Johns, becoming the second high-profile indigenous person to join the race for the NDP this week. Ms. Fontaine will face at least two others for the nomination in the lead up to the provincewide April 19 election. She has worked on the issue of Canada’s missing and murdered indigenous women for roughly 18 years. She was the directo
North America | Canada | Activism

Eekwol Fights for Aboriginal Women’s Rights Through Hip-Hop

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Hip-hop’s roots are inextricably linked to political, socioeconomic, and racial inequality. Not that you might think of those things while turning up at a party or waxing poetic on a hoverboard. Enter the conscious rapper to remind us what’s real. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan’s Eekwol raps about her Canadian prairie surroundings and Cree culture. Born Lindsay Knight, she began performing in the late 90s with her brother Mils and five cousins under the banner of Innersoulflow. Eventually, the members went solo, but Eekwol continued to promote social change and the quest for knowledge and self
North America | Canada | Sports

Golfer Brooke Henderson named Canadian Press female athlete of year

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Red-eye flights, pre-tournament qualifiers and last-minute travel plans were often the norm for golfer Brooke Henderson in her first season as a professional. At the start of the year, she hoped to post some decent results and use her rookie campaign as a learning experience. Henderson did much more than that in 2015 — she became the first Canadian to win on the LPGA Tour in more than a decade and rocketed into the top 20 in the world rankings. Not bad for someone who just celebrated her 18th birthday a few months ago. Henderson capped her impressive season Monday by winning the Bobbie Ro
North America | Canada | History

Meet Canada’s First Female Cabinet Minister

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Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided to make his cabinet half women, but the first female in Canada’s cabinet served more than 50 years ago. Born January 28, 1905 in Hamilton, Ontario, Ellen Fairclough (then Ellen Cook) was an accountant who was elected to the House of Commons in 1950. She became the first Canadian female cabinet member when she was appointed Secretary of State by Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker in 1957, and shortly thereafter she became Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, where she worked to regulate immigration to Canada.
North America | Canada | Politics

Why is Canada’s new cabinet half women? Justin Trudeau has the perfect answer

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Justin Trudeau, Canada’s new prime minister, had a joyful swearing-in ceremony on Nov. 4 that featured everything from Inuit throat-singing to an exuberant “selfie-ocean” that surrounded him as he greeted crowds afterward. But the occasion may be most well-remembered outside of Canada for Trudeau’s matter-of-fact answer to a question about his new cabinet at a press conference afterward. His new cabinet is made up of 15 men and 15 women, the first time in Canadian history that there has been an equal number.
North America | Canada | Sports

Oldest female marathoner on running: “Never let yourself think you can’t do it”

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The world’s oldest woman marathoner has a few words of advice for all of us aiming to get better at running: Think positively and focus on pleasant thoughts when the distance gets boring. Harriette Thompson made headlines this year when she ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon at the age of 92. Thompson finished the San Diego course in 7:24:36 and has run 16 marathons. “Most of them I came in first place because I was the only one in that age group,” she says. What’s her advice to those trying to reach a new running goals right now? “Never let yourself think you c
North America | Canada | Politics

Canada’s New Prime Minister Is a Feminist

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Canada has ended the 9.5-year reign of conservative Stephen Harper, a man whose greatest legacy, Stephen Marche wrote in a blistering New York Times op-ed this summer, is one of "secrecy and ignorance." Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau, son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, won in a landslide victory and made history as the first child of a prime minister to be elected into the position. At 43, he is the second-youngest politician to be elected the nation's leader and will be presiding over the most diverse parliament in several years. But Trudeau is notable for another r
North America | Canada | Activism

Women fast to raise awareness about kids in child welfare system

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Six women are going without food or water to raise awareness about the number of children in Manitoba's child welfare system. The women have set up teepees and lit a sacred fire on the Manitoba legislative grounds and will stay there until Thursday. The women are there in support of the efforts of The Manitoba First Nations Family Advocate, that was created in June in order to address concerns with how the province handles situations involving First Nations families. Morgan acknowledged the Truth and Reconciliation Report on Residential Schools, and the province's recent apology for th