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the love-hate relationship between Clark and Pierre Trudeau is so .i g that I fully believe they must - .p one another’s fantasy life when go to bed at night. omen are simply notin thatleague i ey still don’t “belong” in politics, lie the sometimes sufferance of presence. The most dramatic ration of the trivialization of r tical issues where women are lved was given in the House of a’ mons last month, in the spon- ous eruption of laughter over 'garet Mitchell’s question on wife ting. Is it possible to gather almost 1: men in one room and not have a i e heater in the crowd? Why else -i they laugh? This may be a particularly sensi- " issue here, because there are dies which show a p05sibly higher idence of wife abuse in rural areas, are relief is harder for a woman to (1. And this brings me to my third e which is â€" '3: men and Bodily Integrity Here I am really treading in dan- ous waters so may I preface my 1 arks by saying that I am a more or ‘: old-fashioned Roman Catholic with ht children, whose religious values '- pretty well established. I have this lief about God: there is not much y of us can do to upset God‘s plan â€" Providence. We can do no harm that in cannot correct. Nothing any one A W] member far50years, 95-year- .ld’ Mrs, H. Mizen cuts the Thornlzill 1 80th Anniversary cake. Others resent for the celebration which took lace late in April included, left to '1“, Mrs. K, Hiepleh,Presr'dent FWIO; vrs. E. Jackson, Tweedrmuir History umtormnd Mrs. W. Drew, President. of us can do will condemn another per- son to damnation. Each person must do that alone. The relationship with God is personal and unique to each person. And moral judgements must be made on that basis. That is my belief. So now the issue of bodily in- tegrity. Women must fight collectively against the imposition of any external or political power over a Woman’s right to bodily integrity, or to have her integrity restored as much as possible after a violation. Particularly, women must resist the leadership of men on all issues pertain- ing to bodily integrity a and here i am referring to other corrective mea- sures which must be available to wom- en in the event of violation by any person for any cause. A woman violated has, in my judg- ment 7 an absolute right to be re- stored in her integrity to where it was before her violation. No result of the violation can overcome that original right and each individual woman must be rendered free to achieve it, regardâ€" less of personal wealth and power. Obviously, i am speaking of the abortion issue, which is an outstanding example of the mischief which can be done by male leadership on a matter which affects only women. Violated women must be free to choose, and those of us who have been fighting God‘s battle in that be~ half would do well to lay off, because I suspect God has had very little to do with our motivation, When theologians lead, it is men who lead, and in this issue not only have they been pro- foundly wrong, they also seem to have been profoundly without faith. Women and Poverty 1 am exhausting my time and my ideas, but in this subject I simply want to remind you again that if you are born female you stand a much greater chance of being poor, or of working all your life for less money, than if you are born male. If you are a single female parent you are six times more likely to be poor than if you are a single male parent; three times more likely if you are just a single person. So a single woman who gets pregnant instantly doubles her chance of being poor, while the man remains relatively un- affected 7 most often in any way â€" by the experience. If you are an older woman your chances are indeed great for being poor, especially if you are depen- dent on a husband‘s pension. For the majority of older women the OAS- GiS will be all they will have. So do not assume anything great about the future, and while there is not a whole lot of money to be made in the poverty field, it is one in which women have a stranglehold. Welfare assistance is predominantly directed towards women, and so on. Now, to pull this together for the Women’s Institutes. Throughout my term as a Deputy Minister 1 always had a concern for the lack of a strong, persistent, forceful voice for women in our Province, because of the great need of understanding and support for the service system which 1 rep- resented. in conjunction with my Status of Women assignment which 1 described earlier, I took the initiative in having the P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women formed, but it proved to be a major disappointment for me, because they got off on exotic issues which had little to do with the real survival issues which i had thought important to women in my Province. My experience with private sector organizations seeking to advance vari- ous causes was that they were largely incapable of advocating effectively with Governments, unless they were advancing a course of action which Government wished to adopt in any case, or where the issue was so picay- une that it was easy for Government to accede. My concerns about the inadequacy of private sector organiza- tions was for assisting them, consist» ing of a two-day seminar on “Effec- tive Advocacy" covering such matters as the budgeting process, how to work with politicians, how to work with the bureaucracy, and how to develop your own strength as an advocacy organiza- tion. (I am prepared to conduct that seminar as a professional service any- where in Canada, but it isn‘t free). And so we come to the Women‘s Institutes. and i used to reflect on how this organization, with all its 3000 members on PAEJ. â€" mature wom. en, with many, many years of strong experience, and all of their good will, and potential political strength, how could this organization be rendered into the effective political power it had the potential to become. Because do not be mistaken about one thing, the Women’s institute, no more than any other women’s or- ganization, does not really count 15