Changing Lives: Women and the Northern Ontario Experience by Margaret Kechnie and Marge Reitsma-Street

Author:Margaret Kechnie and Marge Reitsma-Street
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781554881291
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 1996-12-17T05:00:00+00:00

Part Three

Daily Stresses

The women’s movement has raised women’s consciousness about the feminization of poverty and the violence that colours the lives of many women. The chapters in this section examine the major stresses northern women deal with, and the impact that such tensions can have on their lives.

In Ontario, mining is synonymous with the north, but seldom do we think of the way in which mining creates anxiety in women. Nancy Forestell examines the lives of women and their families as they dealt with accidents, disease, and even the death of the men in their lives. One of the issues raised in that chapter, women’s poverty, is dealt with further in the chapters by Carol Kauppi and Marge Reitsma-Street and by Marie-Luce Garceau. Kauppi and Reitsma-Street have found that low income and high cost of living mean that many women, especially single mothers and older women, live in poverty. Garceau writes specifically about older francophone women: while they take pride in their domestic contributions, most live in dependent situations and have few options due to low levels of education.

Economic isolation is just one factor identified by Marian Beauregard as leading to lives defined by abuse and even violence. The women she interviewed speak of the resulting impact on their mental heath; they also identify ways they have found to break the cycle of violence faced by so many women.

Stresses created by poverty, isolation, and violence can have a profound effect on women’s health. Health issues are central to the concluding chapters in this section. Roger Pitblado and Raymond Pong use the Ontario Health Survey to show that women in Northern Ontario have slightly higher rates of both health problems and chronic diseases than women in Southern Ontario. After reviewing the health practices of 177 women, Carole Suschnigg identified barriers to care: attitudes of doctors to women’s health concerns, the pressures of work and home demands, low income, and poor working conditions.

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