Tories prefer Canadian women to 'stay barefoot and pregnant,

[Daanyeer]

Tories prefer Canadian women to 'stay barefoot and pregnant,' say Liberals

Source: canada.com
Published: Tuesday, November 28, 2006


OTTAWA (CP) - The federal Liberal women's caucus is accusing the Conservative government of trying to keep females "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen," saying the government is pursuing an ideological agenda that ignores women's needs and cuts funding to those who need help the most.

The Liberal women released a set of party policies Monday aimed at what they say are the most pressing social and economic issues facing Canadian women, particularly working women and their families, caregivers and seniors.

Improving the social and economic equality of women is the driving force behind the first volume of what the Liberals are calling their "Pink Book."

The document is the product of cross-country working sessions with women and women's groups held last July, and is slated to be part of the party's election platform.

The recommendations are also aimed at countering what Belinda Stronach, chair of the Liberal women's caucus, described as the Conservative government's "attack" on women's progress.

The recommendations include commitments to reinstate the Liberal child-care and early-learning plan the Tories scrapped after the last election; to reverse budget cuts to social programs and Status of Women; to develop a national caregiver agenda; to provide more benefits to the self-employed, and to secure equal pay for work of equal value.

Judy Sgro said it's not so much the dollars as the message the Tory cuts send.

"I think Harper and his Conservative government, based on their policies, would clearly prefer women would stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and move us backwards 40 years," she said.

New Democrat MP Olivia Chow said the Liberals are ill-qualified to be making policy promises about women.

"It doesn't matter what colour it is," Chow said of the bright pink, 28-page document. "The Liberals have a history of breaking their promises.

"Remember the Red Book?" she asked, in reference to Liberal campaign platforms she said were never fully honoured.

She said women may be barefoot and pregnant under the Conservatives, but they remained too poor to pay the rent and feed their children during 13 years of Liberal governments that cut employment insurance, refused to standardize the minimum wage and did little to address child poverty.

"Those things didn't just happen since (the federal election in) January," she said, contending the NDP, whose caucus is 41 per cent female, have consistently advocated women's economic security.

© The Canadian Press 2006