Karen Seabrooke receives "Femmy" Award
Karen Seabrooke (centre) with Inter Pares colleagues Samantha McGavin and Anne-Marie Zilliacus.
On March 4th, 2009, Karen Seabrooke received one of the first annual “Femmy” Awards during an evening to celebrate International Women’s Day in Ottawa. She was nominated by Inter Pares for her feminist work to promote justice and equality for women. Here is the text of her nomination, which presents a glimpse of the important contributions Karen has made through her work at Inter Pares.
It is an honour for Inter Pares, an international social justice organization based in Ottawa, to nominate Karen Seabrooke for the first annual “Femmy” Award. Born and raised in the Ottawa Valley, Karen spent eleven years working for social justice organizations in Europe and, since the early 1980s, for Inter Pares in Canada. Some lives illustrate the struggles of their times. Karen’s life-long commitment to women’s equality and to the feminist movement, both in Canada and internationally, has involved a wide range of issues that have mobilized women: women’s health, poverty, reproductive and sexual rights, population control, to name a few. Karen always placed importance on sharing women’s experiences and stories, mobilizing with women to effect change at local, national, and international levels.
For decades, Karen has collaborated with women’s organizations, helping to create coalitions, networking, feminist exchanges and joint research and policy advocacy initiatives, and facilitating links among women’s groups in Canada, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Burma. Karen has brought her spirit, authenticity and unique sense of humour to all that she has undertaken, fostering a deep sense of trust and friendship with feminist activists around the world. Karen’s contribution to the Canadian women’s movement is broad and inspiring. In Ottawa, she served for many years on the boards of local women’s organizations, including the Amethyst Women’s Addiction Centre and Nelson House of Ottawa-Carleton, a women’s shelter.
One initiative for which Karen is well-known is the series of activities that led to the creation of Side Effects, a play on women and the pharmaceutical industry. In October 1982, Karen organized cross-Canada meetings between two Bangladeshi women community workers and various Canadian networks and groups. The Bangladeshi and Canadian women shared experiences, ideas, and common concerns facing women in their own contexts. A shared concern centred on women’s health, and particularly the impact of the drug industry and medical establishment on women’s lives. Canadian and Bangladeshi women saw the need to take more control over their own health and for a stronger voice in shaping health policies which would meet their needs. These exchanges led to:
- the creation of Women’s Health Interaction, a network of theatre people, health activists, women’s rights activists, health professionals, media, development workers, and other interested women;
- For Health or for Profit?, an information kit on the role of the drug industry in the world and the targeting of women in the advertising of prescription drugs;
- Side Effects, a play that was performed across Canada by the Great Canadian Theatre Company, in collaboration with a local community groups. The script was based on the concerns of Canadian women as well as women from the South;
- policy advocacy work on issues of women’s reproductive rights, safe, effective and accessible forms of family planning, and the medicalization of women’s health;
- the linkages among women’s health activists across Canada contributed to the creation of the Canadian Women’s Health Network.
As Karen said in a speech at a meeting of women’s health activists: “We …have a vision of another world. It’s a world where commercial interests no longer dictate how societal problems will be dealt with, and where governments address the root causes of poor health – including poverty, violence against women, racism, and other forms of social injustice. It’s a world where our food, air, soil, and water are not contaminated – where everyone has adequate housing, a safe environment, a just income, and quality health care and education. We want a world where women’s lives are not medicalized – a world where social and political solutions, rather than technical or pharmaceutical fixes, are the norm.”
Karen Seabrooke, and many women who have had the opportunity to work with her, have fostered not only a vision of another world, but have enabled us to move closer to that world, a world in which women’s voices and perspectives are validated.
In summary, we believe that Karen Seabrooke is deserving of a Femmy award for her lifetime achievement in defending and promoting women’s equality and for her dedication to a common struggle for justice, at home and internationally.
| Reviewed April 23, 2009 |  |
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