Currently, I'm working on one of the best and most interesting papers I've ever had the opportunity to write. This semester I'm in a first year Women, Work and Unions course and we were assigned to write a paper on one or more of the three topics above using both secondary research and primary research from two women involved in either the paid or unpaid workforce. As I'm currently attempting to get into teacher's college, I thought I would do a paper on something relating to that. My paper is entitled "Gender and Resistance: Ontario Teachers Fightback! Basically, I first began to explore the history of teaching and teachers unions and how it became a gendered profession and how gender shaped teachers unions and specifically how gender shaped how teachers fought back against state led attacks on their working and living conditions. I looked at the 1997 Ontario teachers strike against Bill 61 and the Harris Conservative government. Using interviews from four different teachers I am attempting to explain how teachers and teachers unions, once thought to be passive, nurturing and benevolent (as per gender theory) led one of the most militant and largest strikes in Canadian history. I'm also looking at a few international perspectives, most likely the 2006 teachers strike in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the 2004 "illegal" BC public teachers strike. So stoked on this paper !
Speaking of politics, I'm planning on attending this :
http://www.3903strike.ca/
and so should you ! CUPE 3903 winning this strike is crucial to all of us, not just the students and workers ! I'm talking to you people in Toronto! Take an hour, show some solidarity and meet some really awesome young workers !
