The+Women's+Liberation+Movement

=The Women's Liberation Movement = = = The Women's Liberation movement culminated in the 1960's. Many people(mostly women) wanted equality between the sexes. Women did not want to suffer discrimination in their choice of employment. They wanted the same pay as men in the same position. Also the women wanted a stronger voice in politics.

Feminism Surge
The social movement of feminism was a strong force even in politics at the beginning of the 21st century. Many women wanted change, primarily the right to vote (enfranchisement). Feminism came on the scene with the success of the Persons Case and gained even more strength when Quebec gave the right to vote for women in 1941, the last province to do so. It was only recognized as a movement in the 1960's. After World War 2 many women were laid off from their jobs because the men came back from the war. This did not sit too well with some women who were forced to once again assume the role of a housewife. Any jobs that women had had lower pay than a male job. A few women were forced to get two jobs to be able to sustain their family. In the 60's women became more informed as they began to read books by feminists such as Kate Millet and Gloria Steinem. These books influenced many women to start groups in their local community to form their own groups and support the women's movement.

[[image:halifax2.jpg width="218" height="261" align="left" caption="An artists representation of women from different countries protesting peace. Source: library2.usask.ca/herstory/world"]]
In the middle of the sixties many smaller women's groups joined together to form organizations. This was done because the smaller groups could only operate regionally but they wanted to affect the nation. Voice of Women was one of the bigger organizations founded in the 1960's and had members in

[[image:bird_blog_item.jpg width="201" height="247" align="right" caption="Florence Bayard Bird, the chairwoman of the Royal Commission on the Stauts of Women. Source:canadianencyclopedia.ca"]]
every province of Canada. VOW wanted the Canadian government to reduce the number of weapons(disarmament) and to oppose war. They organized campaigns to educate the masses of their mission, sent complaints to the government, held conferences and meetings, and sent ambassadors to other countries to understand about the views of other women. VOW still exists today.

Royal Commission on the Status of Women
On February 16th 1967 Lester B. Pearson created the Royal Commission on the Status of Women after a 6- month campaign brought together by an alliance of 32 women's groups. Ottawa journalist Florence Bird was given the honor of becoming the chairwoman of the Commission and thus the RCSW became the first Canadian Commission headed by a woman. The goal of the Commission was to investigate everything relating to the status of women and create a list of recommendations to improve the condition of Canadian women affected by inequality. During a 6-month period the Commission held hearing all across Canada. This drew a lot of media attention pertaining to the many problems experienced by Canadian women. After 6 months the commission created a 488 page report complete with 167 recommendations to make women's lives easier and stop inequality. By the 1980's most of the recommendations have been implemented.

Status of Women in the Present
Although most of the recommendations on the Commission report have been met Canada still has not attained gender equality. The United Nations ranked Canada as the number one most desirable country to live in, in 1997, but dropped 6 ranks after gender equality was considered. The Women's Movement allowed the two genders to become closer together. This improves the quality of life in Canada by making people happier. But we are still not completely equal, thus women are not completely happy and the Women's Movement is not truly over.