I ask all Hamiltonians to look at the women around them..

I've been intrigued by the articles in The Spectator over the last few months regarding women's issues by writers such as Lenore Lukasik-Foss, Krista Warnke and Evelyn Myrie.

As a person in the infancy of my women's issues education, I am compelled to take issue with the Status of Women's office closure.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty certainly sent a clear message when they cut the funding to Status of Women, which resulted in the muting and dissolution of the Hamilton office.

That message is: programs that identify the issues that affect women -- such as lack of childcare, violence, inaccessible education and women who are seniors in poverty -- are resources not worthy of investment.

For those who turn an indifferent ear to this issue because it's on the federal level, look locally at how this trickles through the mindset in the treatment of the 69 women and one man on strike at First Ontario Credit Union.

They're standing their ground for issues such as post-retirement benefits, sick days, ensuring full-time positions so they can be secured enough hours to live on.

I ask all Hamiltonians to look at the women around them, the immigrant woman in an abusive relationship, the single mom without affordable child care, the senior who has to go to the food bank, the employee who is paid 71 per cent of her male counterpart and remember there is still much to do in raising awareness in the attitudes around women's issues.

Are Hamiltonians up to it? Without a doubt.


LINK: By Juanita Maldonado Hamilton Spectator