Constitute

Women’s Constitutional Activism: Across the World

Shot intensively over 3 days at the Canadian Forum on Women’s Activism in Constitutional and Democratic Reform. This documentary will look at the history of women’s rights activism in Canada. The IWRP sponsored website is being developed to include material about how the work is being carried on by a whole new generation of women.

On Valentine’s Day, in 1981, the Ad Hoc Committee of Women and the Constitution gathered on Parliament Hill for a conference that fundamentally changed Canadian history by ensuring that the rights of women were written into the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 25 years later, on the same day, in the same room on Parliament Hill, a new conference took place where many of the original women joined politicians, international women’s rights leaders, and a new generation of students and activists to celebrate the past and pass the torch of feminism to a new generation of activists.

Women across the generations agree that there remains much work to be done in the realm of women’s rights. While many advances have been made, there remain issues such as of violence against women for example, where surprisingly there has been no statistical progress. In other areas, such as childcare and equal representation in government, advances made in the past are actually being eroded.

The documentary was shot using 2 film crews: a professional crew featuring award-winning journalist Sally Armstrong, and a student crew of young film makers and journalism student Meara Michalska. This shooting style highlights the intergenerational nature of the conference, placing equal emphasis on established and up and coming activists. In addition, archival footage was used to illustrate the original 1981 event.

Representatives from Rwanda, South Africa, and Afghanistan put the issues in a global context, demonstrating the need for women the world over to work together to ensure the advancement of women’s rights into the future.

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