Excerpts from the report:
This report is a preliminary discussion of some of the questions that emerge from the demise of the Manitoba Action Committee on the Status of Women (MACSW). It is the first part of a much larger study of women's organizing and activism in Manitoba. This report and the larger study build on previous work to paint a picture of current women's organizing. The current study identifies the many diverse organizations that comprise the women's movement in Manitoba, and how these organizations and groups express their feminist ideas and how they undertake their political action strategies. Specifically, this paper argues that given the number and diversity of women's organizations present in the province, the goal of women's equality continues to animate the social and political landscape of Manitoba. Women continue to go the distance in their struggle to better the lives of women and by all accounts, they are in it for the long haul.
The findings of this study are presented in four sections. Part I presents the framework for analysis and the methodology. The second part discusses the dynamics of feminism in Manitoba as expressed by the particular individuals, groups, and organizations studied. An overview of a representative selection of women's groups and organizations comprises Part III. These selected case studies analyze various organizations in Manitoba, such as the Manitoba Women's Institute, the Provincial Council of Women of Manitoba, Mothers of Red Nations, New WAVES, Rainbow Resource Centre, Sage House, and the UN Platform for Action Committee (MB). The fourth and final section offers some reflections on women's organizing in Manitoba. This report is not a definitive or exhaustive description and analysis of women's and feminist organizing in
Manitoba. Being a preliminary report it can be neither &emdash; such a detailed analysis will come later. It can, and does however, address a modest but important issue: did the end of MACSW sound a death knell for women's organizations in Manitoba?