Caring hearts, overworked hands }} For decades, social agencies, charities, arts groups and churches have relied heavily on women’s unpaid work. Can those volunteers keep it up?
NANCY PAYNE Associate Editor
Mrs. Schmale and Mrs. Richardson as convenors of a Daffodil Tea held in aid of the local Cancer Society. Photo courtesy of Kawartha Lakes Public Library.
Picture a community-minded female volunteer from the past. Perhaps you think of a hatted and gloved lady pouring tea at a charity luncheon, or a farm woman teaching teenaged girls how to sew curtains. Maybe it’s an image of capable women from 70 years ago organizing a campaign for the Ross Memorial Hospital or Academy Theatre … and then handing over the proceeds to a largely male board of directors. Whether or not those pictures were ever true to life, it’s increasingly clear that they aren’t any
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more. Women volunteers have long been the backbone of a wide range of community initiatives, but their involvement is changing. While of course men do an enormous amount of volunteering in areas that benefit people all over Kawartha Lakes, Statistics Canada figures — which include all types of volunteer work — show that about 40 per cent of men in Ontario volunteer compared to 43 per cent of women. CONT’D ON PAGE 14
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