{"id":7673,"date":"2021-03-08T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/2021\/03\/04\/women-in-distress-let-them-be-heard\/"},"modified":"2024-12-08T10:40:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-08T15:40:31","slug":"women-in-distress-let-them-be-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/women-in-distress-let-them-be-heard\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in Distress: Let Them Be Heard"},"content":{"rendered":"

L\u2019R des centres de femmes du Qu\u00e9bec chooses International Women\u2019s Day to sound the alarm about the number of women across the province in the clutches of psychological distress. Under the banner of Let\u2019s listen to women<\/a>, L\u2019R takes March 8 as an opportunity to call for immediate action in facing this mental health crisis among women.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken everyone everywhere since the spring of 2020. Yet not everyone bears the brunt equally. As months have rolled on, inequalities have grown, and women\u2019s level of distress has risen. \u201cIt\u2019s everywhere. The healthcare sector, the education sector, the community sector; one by one, women workers are raising white flags and going on sick leave. They\u2019re at the end of their rope,\u201d explains L\u2019R co-coordinator St\u00e9phanie Vall\u00e9e. Rooted in compassion fatigue, this distress is also fuelled by growing anger about their work being undervalued while at the same time so central to fighting the pandemic. \u201cIt\u2019s absurd how little attention government and employers are paying to our calls for support. We have been fighting for an increase in our mission funding for more than 15 years. What needs to happen for our contributions to be recognized? If women had not stepped up and answered the call, how would the province have coped with the pandemic?\u201d asks Vall\u00e9e.<\/p>\n

Government\u2019s action plan on women\u2019s health and wellbeing sorely lacking<\/h3>\n

For the last five years, women\u2019s groups working in healthcare have patiently waited for the government to take action to improve the health and wellbeing of women. The measures presented in its action plan are sadly disappointing. Largely obsolete, and more reactive than preventive, the plan tosses the underlying aspects of this social issue to the oubliettes. The gaps between the objectives it sets out and the actions it outlines are considerable, and not a single word on the impact of the pandemic on women\u2019s health. Meanwhile, the promise of a mere $5 million a year to address this issue only adds insult to injury to those working in women\u2019s health. <\/p>\n

Relaunching the economy on feminist terms as the right response<\/h3>\n

From February 22 to 26, women\u2019s centres across the province met with their local MNAs to present them with a joint statement for a feminist economic relaunch<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s an urgent need to make structural changes if we are to properly respond to the distress of society\u2019s most vulnerable women,\u201d continues Vall\u00e9e. In healthcare and social services, systemic racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia and lesbophobia, classism, and obesity stigma make it difficult, sometimes even risky, for women to obtain care. Women\u2019s centres believe that massive investments in the social safety net along with major changes in our public services are needed to resolve the social issue that has become women\u2019s distress and to, more generally, support the wellbeing of all women.<\/p>\n

Le Collectif 8 mars, Molotov communications. Drawing: Valaska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

L\u2019R des centres de femmes du Qu\u00e9bec chooses International Women\u2019s Day to sound the alarm about the number of women across the province in the clutches of psychological distress. Under the banner of Let\u2019s listen to women<\/em>, L\u2019R takes March 8 as an opportunity to call for immediate action in facing this mental health crisis among women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[135],"class_list":["post-7673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-sante-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11704,"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7673\/revisions\/11704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rcentres.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}