After hearing extensively from midlife women across Ontario in 2001, the Older Women’s Network brought these and other women back together in 2002, to begin organizing for changes. Women in four regions across Ontario, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Peterborough and Sudbury – identified the main areas where they wanted to see changes made.

Midlife for women is often a time of surprises and losses, i.e. loss of health, marriage and common-law partners, relationships and employment. There is a pronounced feeling of a lack of control over their lives because of the ongoing forced obligations related to helping, supporting, and caring for their families and extended families, that prevent them from focusing on their own economic stability.

Midlife women experience explicit labour market exclusion. We know that midlife women leave work earlier than men and for unpaid work, volunteering and informal care-giving. Fewer women in this age group have paid employment. It is very difficult for midlife women to find employment, to be re-trained and/or to re-enter the workforce if absent for a period of time. If companies downsize, midlife women are the first to go. It is evident that there is age discrimination in the labour market. Midlife women are also working in lower paying jobs, part-time or contractual positions, and are over-represented in non-managerial, administrative and caring positions – thus in most cases midlife women are not doing meaningful work. Further, immigrant women, women of colour and women with disabilities face additional barriers due to limited access to education, lack of accommodations for women with disabilities, language barriers, bias and discrimination.

Lastly, midlife single mothers, women on social assistance/income replacement and the working poor are particularly vulnerable. Monica Townson recently defined this group of women as the « transition generation » : «  They are the population that is vulnerable in this new economy that has shifted from public to individual responsibility ». The goal of midlife women’s advocacy is to place women’s economic issues on the national public agenda.

The groups of women developed outreach plans for each of their regions; they identified and learned about advocacy strategies and they developed region-specific community tool kits. The Older Women’s Network then organized a provincial forum bringing all the women from each of these regions together to hear the specifics of each city’s Community Advocacy Initiative. We heard that all of the cities had gone through many changes since the spring of 2002 and that the work began to take on a more concrete form in the fall of 2002.

Each city, with the exception of Kitchener-Waterloo, was remarkably able to develop its own community resource tool, which either documented the work that they have been involved with to-date or outlined a particular method of advocacy. The idea here was that each plan of action could be replicated by any other midlife women’s group that wanted to see changes in their lives.

The forum process itself was recorded on video with the goal of developing a community resource tool. The purpose of the videotaping was to develop a visual/educational resource that can also be used by women’s groups throughout the province and country. By outlining the issues facing midlife women and the concrete ways to address these issues, awareness is raised again, women are inspired, and change is de-mystified.

Peterborough

The women in Peterborough spoke about the need to understand the realities of women’s lives and the restrictions these pose when attempting to do advocacy work. For example, women needing to work or needing to look for work and women who are working for change are often over-extended and are involved in many overlapping social justice causes/movements.

Peterborough’s tool kit outlined information and steps in getting women together . They began by developing lists that outlined:

• How to locate a person, policy or information
• Bibliography
• Media coverage contact, fax and phone

The tool kit described:

• How to get letters in the press
• How to poster
• Places where women could hold meetings
• Information that is useful for holding meetings
• How to develop a checklist for meetings
• How to keep the meeting on track
• The steps for arranging transportation
• How to make women feel comfortable
• How to give information

Women in Peterborough wanted their tool kit to be applicable to any advocacy issue for women. The main goal of their work was to increase women’s self-esteem, and they hoped to expand their OWN membership in the process.

Kitchener-Waterloo

Due to this delayed startup, however, they were unable to complete a community tool kit by the end of the project’s timeframe.

Some of the issues they were facing were related to the fact that Kitchener-Waterloo represents one of the fastest growing immigrant settlement centres in Canada. With the fourth largest immigrant population in the country, the social service sector is scrambling to meet the diverse needs of the community. At the onset of Phase II this region focused on getting women to exercise their right and duty to vote. They initially wanted to hire a public educator to conduct this advocacy work; however, a new group of women took over this project in the fall of 2002 and they identified outreach and empowerment of women (both rural and urban) as their immediate priority. They too felt the need for advocating for midlife and other women to participate in the upcoming elections as a means to challenge the decision- making process.

They set out to establish a diverse and inclusive committee, with a goal of reaching out to midlife women with disabilities, immigrant women, and even younger women. They identified the importance of developing linkages to other social (justice) movements. 

Sudbury 

The Sudbury Women’s Centre took on the work of Phase II in Sudbury, where they identified the following five priority issues:

• Gathering and getting information to women
• Health care
• Income
• Housing
• Transportation

They felt that women did not find the opportunities to communicate and tell other women their problems. Therefore they set out to educate women that they have the right to disclose and discuss their problems and to assess their own personal worth. They established a « power buddy » system whereby women would pair up and support each other as needed. They are developing alliances with other organizations that share common goals.  The idea of a co-op building for midlife women is also something that the community would like to work towards.

Toronto 

The group wanted to see policy and program changes in the areas of social supports and services, divorce laws, and immigration laws. They also wanted to see changes in the labour market that would recognize non-Canadian experience and credentials from other countries; and changes that would result in better incomes. Immigrant women wanted more access to education.

 The Toronto group met regularly from the onset of the project to redefine issues and determine how they wanted to work. They began with an advocacy workshop in August 2002, leading to community action and the establishment of core working groups. They developed a two-page presentation for politicians, in particular to ministers responsible for women's issues. The Toronto group also envisions a Phase III where their next steps would be : 1) to make allies among politicians, 2) outreach to other communities, 3) educate women on issues, 4) increase access to information, and 5) develop and deliver seminars that address alienation, isolation and displacement of midlife women.

After two years of working with midlife women in Ontario around the issue of economic security , it is clear that the broad issues of poverty and minimal opportunities are similar throughout the province. Also clear is that the community development process takes time – and that women have been given hope that they can together make changes. The reality of short-term project funding, however, does not allow for the appropriate evolution of community consciousness-raising, outreach, appropriately organized facilitated dialogues, and culturally sensitive resource development. Midlife women have felt respected and heard throughout both Phase I and Phase II of this process and expectations have been raised. We aim to extend and continue this work, until we can measure the difference our work is making - whether that is in the area of policy reform, community support or most importantly the positive changes that we are witnessing.