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If the women of St. John's, Newfoundland have their way, this very well could be the scene in the legislature on a monthly basis. Feminism fits was the brainchild of well known activist and Officer of the Order of Canada, Nancy Riche. Riche, who was part of the International Women's Day Committee in St. John's this past March, came up with this form of political protest. Her idea was to find a way to give women in this province a voice and to facilitate a process whereby women, who did not have the time to join a committee or come to a meeting, could have an impact on the political process.

“Women are busy, very busy,” Riche says. “The double day has turned into the triple day plus. With women in the province working 850,000 hours of unpaid work each year, they don't have a lot of time. Yet, they want their voices heard. How to do it in the least amount of time?”

And so feminism fits was born!

Each month, women are asked to suggest an issue that is affecting their lives or the lives of women they know. These can be related to violence against women, women's economic inequality, affordable child care, pay equity — the list is endless. The feminism fits committee will pick the issue. A short background paper and a sample letter will be prepared and sent out to the large listserve of eager women. They will be encouraged to use this information to email the Premier and the Minister for the Status of Women, on the eighth of each month.

Since International Women's Day is March 8, the committee thought it was “fitting” that this date be used every month.

The goal is to have hundreds of women across the province write to the Premier and to send these emails on the same day. One or two letters a day are easy to delete; receiving hundreds of them makes it a lot harder.

The need for feminism fits comes from the devastation that women in this province are facing as the newly elected Tory government of Danny Williams embarks on its style of fiscal management.

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Great idea! I hope to see it spreading.

[ 11 May 2004: Message edited by: Performance Anxiety ]

[ 11 May 2004: Message edited by: Sharon ]