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Making Visible the Invisible: The Intersectionality of Invisible Labour | City Conversations

2018, Future of Work, Summit Brave New Work, Equity + Justice, Series City Conversations

Are outdated and stereotypical gender roles continuously enforcing systemic issues such as the invisible workload? What is the invisible workload anyway?

Today, the mental and emotional impact of invisible labour has moved beyond family duties and continues to pervade even the most diverse and progressive ways of living. Through various forms of structural oppression, such as race, class, age, and (dis)ability, as well as factors such as workplace policies, benefits and expectations, the care economy, immigration laws, and the aging population, among many others, the gaps of inequality continue to widen, often to the disadvantage of marginalized groups.

This conversation goes beyond the intersections of gender. Instead, our panelists will delve deep into how the invisible workload and other burdens are systemically and disproportionately impacting some individuals more than others, in their home, their workplace, and their community. Then it’s your turn to pose questions, comments, and observations. Together, we can begin using this as an opportunity to create awareness and go beyond the often outdated notions of gendered work.

Thu, 01 Mar 2018

12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (PT)

SFU Vancouver at Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings St., Vancouver
Room 7000

About Brave New Work

The 2018 Community Summit, Brave New Work, invites us to consider how can we all thrive in the changing world of work.

Technological growth is happening at an unprecedented rate and scale, and it is fundamentally altering the way we organize and value work. The work we do (and how we do it) is changing. One of the biggest challenges in effectively responding to this new world of work is creating a shared understanding of the issues at play and how they intersect. Individuals, businesses, governments, educational institutions, and civil society must collaborate to construct the future we want.

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Speakers

Habiba Zaman

Habiba Zaman is a Professor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. She is also an associate member of SFU Labour Studies Program. Zaman is the author of several books and reports including Breaking the Iron Wall: Decommodification and Immigrant Women’s Labor in Canada (2006) and Asian Immigrants in “Two Canadas”: Racialization, Marginalization, and Deregulated Work (2012). She is also the co-author of Workplace Rights for Immigrants in BC: The Case of Filipino Workers (2007). Currently, she is editing a conference proceeding titled Canada 150 Conference on Migration of Bengalis (2018). She is one of the editors of McGill-Queens series in Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice in the Global South. Zaman is a Board member of South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) and South Asian Film Education Society (SAFES). She is an Advisor of Gender and Development Research Centre, Hohai University, China.

Kendra Strauss

Kendra Strauss is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University. She is also the Director of The Labour Studies Program and The Morgan Centre for Labour Research. She is a labour geographer and feminist political economist with teaching and research interests in the areas of labour market change, welfare regimes, and systems of regulation. Her work focuses on occupational pensions; precarious work, migration and unfree labour; and on theorizing the relationship between production and social reproduction in contemporary capitalist economies.  Before coming to SFU she taught at Birkbeck College (University of London) and held posts at the University of Glasgow and the University of Cambridge, where she was Director of Studies for Geography at Robinson College.

Natalie Drolet

Natalie Drolet joined Migrant Workers Centre as Executive Director – Staff Lawyer in November 2014. Her legal practice focuses on the areas of immigration law and employment law. Natalie has been active in the fields of migration and human rights since 2003 when she worked as a researcher in Thailand for Rights & Democracy. Before joining MWC, she served as the Staff Lawyer for a multilingual access to justice initiative with the South Ottawa Community Legal Services. Prior to this, Natalie worked in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where she managed projects to advance the rights of domestic workers with the Legal Support for Children and Women.

Natalie received her Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Civil Law from McGill University in 2009 and her Master of Arts in Immigration and Settlement Studies from Ryerson University in 2005.

Ellen Woodsworth

Ellen Woodsworth is the founder of Women Transforming Cities. She works to make cities work for self identified women and girls by working with self-identified women and girls all over the world from local neighbourhoods to global gatherings like UN Habitat 3.

Ellen is an international speaker and urban consultant on gender and intersectional planning. She is a former Vancouver City Councillor and was their representative on the Executive of Union of B.C. Municipalities, Lower Mainland Treaty Advisory Committee and Alternate at Metro Vancouver. Ellen provides workshops for cities and NGO’s using “Advancing Equity and Inclusion a Guide for Municipalities” endorsed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, CCMARD, UNESCO and several universities. In 2016 she spoke at the UN Habitat 3 conferences in Prague and in Quito and at the Smart Sustainable Cities conference in Montevideo, Uruguay as well as participating in the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights meeting about the “Right to the City” and housing.

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