¤ Field Notes from the Feminist Economy
¤ Field Notes from the Feminist Economy
New to Canada but not new to business, Hermine Mbondo turned her obstacles into opportunities.
Our freedom dream envisions a micro enterprise driven economic transformation which helps to bring about a world in which all beings (including the planet) can flourish safely, bravely and authentically without fear.
Support or engage in this work–right here! Right now.
It’s no surprise the election debates were more squabbling than substance. Here are a few thoughts on where I stand on the most important issues for women.
LiisBeth reports on and celebrates the work happening at the intersection of feminism + entrepreneurship + innovation. Our freedom dream envisions a care-centered, fair, inclusive, post capitalist economy. Our stories centre the enterprises, ideas, research and lived experiences lighting the way.
Published monthly, our award winning newsletter offers views, analysis, news, tips, plus downloadable tools, recommended readings, shout-outs, and WOAH! Feminist freebies! Don’t miss out!
How one entrepreneur closed her doors and opened another.
It’s no surprise the election debates were more squabbling than substance. Here are a few thoughts on where I stand on the most important issues for women.
Our top Rabble picks for September/October 2021.
Queer-owned businesses face unique challenges, compounded by the pandemic.
A Review of “Everything On (The) Line: 20 Years of Social Movement Stories from rabble.ca.”
A filmmaker launched her own company to explore the stories of Africa and its diaspora.
Study makes it clear: Women entrepreneurs need to organize and get political–or get out of business.
A writer created a house of her own where hyphenated writers could tell their stories.
Who gets to decide who is Indigenous or not? The person? The
government? The community? The media?
On Sept. 30, people from across Canada will observe a new and solemn statutory holiday–National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Orange Shirt Day)
We invite all our readers consider to observe and reflect on what this important day tells us about our capacity for harm, healing and hopes for crafting a truly inclusive future. To learn about Orange Shirt Day, consider watching this July 1 2021 recommended 45 minute documentary.
The Feminist Enterprise Commons (FEC) is pleased to announce that Judy Rebick (Canada’s most well known feminist) will serve as a feminist coach in residence for three months!
During this time, Judy will hold three one hour critical conversation sessions where you can ask her anything, talk about anything and learn from someone who continues to be at the feminist and political forefront in Canada.
The first conversation will happen on Monday, Sept 13 from 4:30-5:30 PM EST.
These sessions are for FEC’ers only and are made possible by membership contributions.
Learn a working definition for the harmful practice of white feminism, its historical origins in the United States, and how this ideology continues to disadvantage poor, disabled, queer, and BIPOC/women and nonbinary people. Discover strategies for both identifying white feminism in real time and also combatting its principals.
MEET OUR GUEST:
Koa Beck, Author and Journalist
KOA BECK is the author of the acclaimed nonfiction book White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind (Simon & Schuster, January 2021), praised by feminist writers Gloria Steinem and Rebecca Traister. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of Jezebel, the executive editor of Vogue.com, and the senior features editor at MarieClaire.com. Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the cofounder of Black Lives Matter, describes Koa’s work as “intellectually smart and emotionally intelligent” while the Boston Globe has deemed her “a perceptive cultural critic” and “a visionary.” Her reporting and analysis on gender, identity, race, and culture have been published in TheAtlantic.com, Out magazine, TIME, TheGuardian.com, The Globe and Mail, Esquire.com, among others. She has spoken at Harvard Law School, Columbia Journalism School, The New York Times, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other institutions. She has also been interviewed by the BBC for her insight into American feminism. In 2019, Koa was awarded the Joan Shorenstein Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife.
Connect with Koa Beck on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Don’t forget to grab your copy of Koa’s book, White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind.
This fall, Action Committee is hosting its the first dialogue in the People-Centered Justice Series on Reckoning: Accountability Frameworks for Responding to Cultural Genocide and the Atrocities at Residential Schools .
Join us on 22nd September at 9: 30PT | 10: 30MT | 11: 30CT | 12:30 ET | 1: 30AT | 2: 00NL as we explore accountability frameworks of specific Indigenous Legal Orders and International Human Rights frameworks.
On our panel, we have some exceptional speakers:
Val Napoleon , PhD: Director, JD / JID program: Professor Law Foundation Chair of Indigenous Justice and Governance
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond , PhD: Director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Center
Tricia Logan , PhD: Head of Research and Engagement at the Residential School History and Dialogue Center, UBC.
This session will explore both international and national accountabilities models in a combination of panel presentations, Q&A and small group discussion.
Stay tuned for more information!
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This fall, the Action Committee is hosting the first dialogue in the People-Centered Justice series, titled Redress: Accountability Frameworks for Responding to Cultural Genocide and Residential School Atrocities.
Join us on September 22, 2021 at 9:30 am PST | 10:30 am MST | 11:30 am CST | 12:30 PM EST | 1:30 PM AST | 2 p.m. NL to discuss the accountability frameworks of some Indigenous legal orders and international human rights frameworks.
Our group of experts is made up of exceptional speakers:
Val Napoleon , Ph. D .: Director, JD / JID Program Professor at the Law Foundation Chair of Indigenous Justice and Governance
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond , Ph. D: director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Center / professor
Tricia Logan , Ph. D: Head of Research and Engagement at the Residential School History and Dialogue Center, University of British Columbia.
This is a session where we will examine national and international best practices by combining panel presentations, Q&A and small group discussions.
Stay tuned for more!
________________________
Date: September 22nd, 2021
Time: 9:30 am PST (12:30 EST)
Cost: Free
On September 23rd, 2021, the Canadian Center For Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE) invites you to join the panel discussion entitled “Economic Abuse: Pathways to Recovery Through Policy” as part of Canada’s Gender Equality Week.
The Canadian Center for Women’s Empowerment is a national organization, based in Ottawa, Canada dedicated to empowering domestic violence survivors through advocacy, mentorship, and economic empowerment.
Panelists from various prestigious organizations such as Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society, Women Abuse Council Of Toronto (WomanACT), YWCA Canada, and Harmony House will discuss the various forms of economic abuse, the challenges survivors are facing, and survey institutional and potential policy approaches to address these challenges.
CCFWE will also take the opportunity to present its recent policy paper and policy recommendations on economic and financial abuse.
CCFWE welcomes all participants! We encourage participation from governments, financial institutions, shelters, VAW organizations, non-profit, academia, students etc.
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Registration is OPEN! Book your spot in each of the exciting sessions you want to attend throughout the month of September.
Date: Monday, Oct 4
Time: 4:00-5:30 PM EDT
Location: Online
Price: $79 CAN/ pp plus PWUC option
To register click here.
It’s 2021. Yet our approach to fiduciary and informal organizational governance is stuck in the past. But not for long.
In our work to advance a more just, inclusive economy, one of the most overlooked social change leverage points are board of directors, advisory boards, and organizational bylaws, both formal and informal.
In this seminar, we, together, take a look at current board/advisory good governance trends, and focus particularly on the role and importance of bylaws as tools we can use to advance social justice in organizational and institutional spaces. We will also share our expertise, research, and lived experience in setting about to create radically inclusive, feminist informed organizational bylaws that align with the times.
“Governance is an ecosystem with many players, influences, and factors. … We need to critically examine the very design of governance so that effective governance is not wholly dependent on maintaining an effective board.”—ONN (Ontario Nonprofit Network)
“Despite the trust and dollars we donate and invest, many of these [nonprofit, social purpose] organizations face serious internal issues. There is often a wide gap between their public mandates — improving people’s lives and advancing society — and their private behaviours. Rampant in the sector are weak governance structures and outdated human resource policies that together often promote, rather than prevent, injustice. “—Shanazz GoKool, former CEO of Dying with Dignity
Governance determines who has power, how power is distributed, who makes decisions, how stakeholders make their voice heard, experiences felt, what is communicated and how account is rendered.
The majority of organizational by-laws are written according to convention or currently defined best practices which in large part, are conform and reinforce patriarchal, colonial and white supremacist values and norms. Startup Founders often spend little time on establishing healthy bylaws. Guidance from conventional experts typically advises founders to maximize control and minimize financial risk by creating governance systems that centralizes power via the establishment of executive committees, limiting the number of director seats (for efficiency sake) and designing governance systems which inherently devalues and disempowers the wisdom of staff and the communities they serve. Such governance systems also make it difficult for complaints or whistle blower beneficiaries, volunteers and staff from both inside and outside the organization to feel safe about reporting injustice and oppression including racism, sexism or harassment (to name a few). Policies and conflict resolution mechanisms tend to oppress those who dare to come forward, many of whom are already systemically oppressed.
The good news is that boards and bylaws that govern their practice don’t have to be instruments of patriarchy, white supremacy, and colonialism. Non-fuduciary advisory boards can also benefit from considering these issues.
In our work to advance a more just, inclusive economy, one of the most overlooked social change leverage points are board of directors, advisory boards, and organizational bylaws, both formal and informal. In this seminar, we will take a look at current board/advisory good governance trends, and focus particularly on the role and importance of bylaws as tools we can use to advance social justice in organizational and institutional spaces. We will share our expertise, research, and lived experience in setting about to create radical feminist informed organizational bylaws that align with the times.
FACILITATOR: pk mutch
Date: Wednesday, October 6
Time: 9:15-10:45 EDT
Cost: Varies (see below)
To Register click here.
About
Accessibility: From Awareness to Action is a three-part training series designed as a deep-dive into creating more accessible non-profit programming. While Inclusive Arts Vermont’s expertise lies within the arts community, this training would be beneficial to any organization looking to increase accessibility for people with disabilities.
The series is composed of two parts – interactive and informative online workshops and individualized consulting time.
Participants can use the two, one-hour consulting sessions with Inclusive Arts Vermont staff to explore a specific program or set more overarching goals across your organization or project.
The size of the training will be small. Registration is limited to twenty participants.
Series Schedule:
Organizations are encouraged to participate in teams of 2-3 people.
Individuals may also register. Registration fees are on a sliding scale, based on an organization’s budget. For individuals, the fee is “Pay What You Can.” We will accept registrations for up to twenty participants, the rest of which will be on a waiting list for the next session.
Organizational Pay Structure:
TO REGISTER click here.
Date: Saturday, October 9, 2021
Time: 11:00 – 13:00 EDT
To Register click here:
Cost: Free
Host: Brick Lane Circle
Location: Online
Country: UK
About:
Stretching from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment era to the War on Terror present, Shehabuddin’s new book Sisters in the Mirror shows how changes in women’s lives and feminist strategies have consistently reflected wider changes in national and global politics and economics. Muslim women, like non-Muslim women in various colonized societies and non-white and poor women in the West, have found themselves having to negotiate their demands for rights within other forms of struggle—for national independence or against occupation, racism, and economic inequality. Sisters in the Mirror is organized around stories of encounters between women and men from Bengal, Britain, and the United States that led them, as if they were looking in a mirror, to pause and reconsider norms in their own society, including cherished ideas about women’s roles and rights. These intertwined stories confirm that nowhere, in either Western or Muslim societies, has had a material change in girls’ and women’s lives come easily or without protracted struggle.
Elora Shehabuddin is Professor of Transnational Asian Studies and Core Faculty, Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, at Rice University. In addition to Sisters in the Mirror, she is author of Reshaping the Holy: Democracy, Development, and Muslim Women in Bangladesh and numerous articles and book chapters, co-editor of Gender and Economics in Muslim Communities, and associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures
Date: Saturday October 9, 2021
Time: 15:00 – 19:00 BST
*IN PERSON EVENT*
To Register click here:
Cost: Varies
Location: The Ecology Pavilion, Mile End Park. Grove Road, Mile End. London. E3 5TW
Country: United Kingdom
About:
Join us to discuss the different forms of ECOFeminism, from the pioneers to the present.
Luisa-Maria MacCormack, Art Historian and Feminist Anthropologist, Co-founder of LDG (London Drawing Group) and BAHP (The Big Art Herstory Project), uncovers the link between ancient Earth Goddesses and Eco-Feminism.
Professor Alicia Puleo from the University of Valladolid (Spain), takes us on a journey to discover the history and theory of ECOFeminism. Puleo is recognized as one of the most relevant ecofeminist thinkers today.
Adenike Oladosu, Founder of I Lead Climate, Ecofeminist, Climate Justice Activist, Ecoreporter & Advocate for the restoration in Lake Chad, Nigeria, will discuss the misconceptions and the intersectionality of Ecofeminism.
Kate Metcalf Co-Director of WEN (Women Environmental Network) will teach us how to be more ECOFeminist today in our everyday life.
Time to take action for a healthier planet!
#EcofeminismFestival
Date: Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT
Cost: Free
Host: entrepreneurspoint.com
Location: Online
Country: Canada
About:
Entrepreneurs Point and her partners will host an Infomation session on how to become a Government supplier and Contractor, in support of Black Canadian Entrepreneurs. This is an addition to the Black Entrepreneurship program offered bu the Office of Small Businesses, Canada.
Since the announcement, many Financial Institutions and Private Institutions have launched initiatives to support SMEs to support the program.
This session focuses on the Contracts available to Black Entrepreneurs and what SMEs need to do to access them.
Only Limited Tickets-Secure you Spot now.
EntrepreneursPoint Academy Faculty members, SMEs, Black Community leaders who will be at the Fireside:
Date: Wednesday, Oct 27th
Time: 12:00 – 13:00 EDT
To Register click here:
Cost: Free
Host: Following the Affective Turn
Location: Online
Country: UK
About
Dr Xine Yao will lecture on race and anti-sociality in affect studies, as part of Following The Affective Turn’s Summer lecture series.
Lecture description
How might “I don’t care” operate as self-care and open up new forms of sociality precisely because of its antisociality?
I propose “unfeeling” as the term towards a methodology that refuses the demand for the marginalized to prove their affective interiorities as evidence of their humanity. In my research I argue that racialized and queer unfeeling dissents from expectations of expressive and responsive affective labour according to sentimental biopolitics.I
In doing so, I follow from queer of colour theorist Martin Manalansan IV’s figuration of disaffection in its causal, affective, and political senses. The negativity of “unfeeling” registers how minoritarian affects are occluded in the American culture of sentiment; instead, I take this demonization of affective tactics of survival and resistance as indicative of the insurgent potential of alternative structures of feeling.
The term ‘”unfeeling” intervenes in the inadequacies of affect theory to address race through the antisocial turn. I share how “unfeeling” brings together.
Speaker:
Dr Xine Yao is Lecturer in American Literature to 1900 at University College London. Her first book is Disaffected: The Cultural Politics of Unfeeling in Nineteenth-Century America which has won Duke University Press’s Scholars of Color First Book Award (October 2021). Her honours include the American Studies Association’s Yasuo Sakakibara Essay Prize and her research has been supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is a BBC Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinker and the co-host of PhDivas Podcast.
Dates: October 25, 27, 29.
Location: Online
Cost: $36.00 – $85 (for recordings)
To register, click here.
_______________________________
Questioning Current Structures and Cultivating Our Radical Imagination
Are you ready for an online conference that is anything but business as usual?
Want to spread your creative wings, have daily stretching time, and dream together?
Anjali Nath Upadhyay and D’Juan Owens say, if we’re going to envision a world after patriarchy, it’s going to take some belief, and you’ve got to be picky about who you let into your space. Safeguard your imagination. This is our time to speak truth about power.
Here is where we talk with each other with the intent to act.
Oppression wants us to be pessimistic. This has to start in our imaginations. Get ready for a revolutionary battery recharge.
How one entrepreneur closed her doors and opened another.
New to Canada but not new to business, Hermine Mbondo turned her obstacles into opportunities.
It’s no surprise the election debates were more squabbling than substance. Here are a few thoughts on where I stand on the most important issues for women.
Our top Rabble picks for September/October 2021.
An accidental banker is providing financial literacy training for women entrepreneurs one conversation at a time.
Queer-owned businesses face unique challenges, compounded by the pandemic.
A Review of “Everything On (The) Line: 20 Years of Social Movement Stories from rabble.ca.”
A filmmaker launched her own company to explore the stories of Africa and its diaspora.
Study makes it clear: Women entrepreneurs need to organize and get political–or get out of business.
A writer created a house of her own where hyphenated writers could tell their stories.
Who gets to decide who is Indigenous or not? The person? The
government? The community? The media?
Highlight Reels For All Six Episodes from Season One Now Available on Youtube.
Episode #1: Farzana Doctor/Seven
Episode #2: Catherine Bush/Blaze Island
Episode #3: Nora Loretto/Take Back the Fight
Episode #4: Leanne Betsamosake Simpson
Episode #5: Shaena Lambert/Petra
Episode #6: Jael Richardson/Gutter Child
Join Lana Pesch again in fall 2021 for another series of intimate conversations with feminist authors at The Feminist Enterprise Commons.
Join Fyli, Wednesday, Sept 22nd 6 PM EST for a conversation with Koa Beck on the history, ideology, and course correction of white feminism.
Join us on 22nd September at 9.30 am PT | 12.30 pm ET with our panel Val Napoleon, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond and Tricia Logan!
Registration is OPEN! Book your spot in each of the exciting sessions you want to attend throughout the month of September.
ate: Monday, Oct 4
Time: 4:00-5:30 PM EDT
Location: Online
Price: $79 CAN/ pp plus PWUC option
To register click here.
It’s 2021. Yet our approach to fiduciary and informal organizational governance is stuck in the past. But not for long.
Date: Wednesday, October 6
Time: 9:15-10:45 EDT
Cost: Varies (see below)
To Register click here.
About
Accessibility: From Awareness to Action is a three-part training series designed as a deep-dive into creating more accessible non-profit programming. While Inclusive Arts Vermont’s expertise lies within the arts community, this training would be beneficial to any organization looking to increase accessibility for people with disabilities.
The series is composed of two parts – interactive and informative online workshops and individualized consulting time.
Participants can use the two, one-hour consulting sessions with Inclusive Arts Vermont staff to explore a specific program or set more overarching goals across your organization or project.
The size of the training will be small. Registration is limited to twenty participants.
Series Schedule:
Organizations are encouraged to participate in teams of 2-3 people.
Individuals may also register. Registration fees are on a sliding scale, based on an organization’s budget. For individuals, the fee is “Pay What You Can.” We will accept registrations for up to twenty participants, the rest of which will be on a waiting list for the next session.
Organizational Pay Structure:
TO REGISTER click here.
Date: Saturday, October 9, 2021
Time: 11:00 – 13:00 EDT
To Register click here:
Cost: Free
Host: Brick Lane Circle
Location: Online
Country: UK
About:
Stretching from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment era to the War on Terror present, Shehabuddin’s new book Sisters in the Mirror shows how changes in women’s lives and feminist strategies have consistently reflected wider changes in national and global politics and economics. Muslim women, like non-Muslim women in various colonized societies and non-white and poor women in the West, have found themselves having to negotiate their demands for rights within other forms of struggle—for national independence or against occupation, racism, and economic inequality. Sisters in the Mirror is organized around stories of encounters between women and men from Bengal, Britain, and the United States that led them, as if they were looking in a mirror, to pause and reconsider norms in their own society, including cherished ideas about women’s roles and rights. These intertwined stories confirm that nowhere, in either Western or Muslim societies, has had a material change in girls’ and women’s lives come easily or without protracted struggle.
Elora Shehabuddin is Professor of Transnational Asian Studies and Core Faculty, Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, at Rice University. In addition to Sisters in the Mirror, she is author of Reshaping the Holy: Democracy, Development, and Muslim Women in Bangladesh and numerous articles and book chapters, co-editor of Gender and Economics in Muslim Communities, and associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures
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