Review

—_ *

NO WAY TO LIVE. Poor Women Speak
Out. By Sheila Baxter. New Star Books,
1988. Available at People’s Co-op Book-
store,

The testimonies bear it out: in Canada
today it is women who are on the frontlines
in the fight with and against poverty.

“I think I will always be poor; it sure
looks that way. No change year after year.
No change; I see the same people all the
time.”

“I wasn’t always poor. I was a secretary. I
Managed a store and I also taught at a

College. I became very sick —I had a

serious heart attack and never got better. I
will always be poor because I am sick.”

“Why am I poor? Because my job doesn’t
Pay me enough to live on. I work at McDo-
nald’s, but it’s always part-time. I never
make full-time, so I don’t get any benefits or
Job security.”

“So many nights I put the kids to bed and
they are saying, ‘But Mom, I’mstill hungry.’
It just breaks my heart to watch them go to
the fridge and leave it empty-handed. By the
end of the month there is usually only car-
Tots and onions left in the fridge; all the
800d stuff has long been eaten.”

These are the words of women living in
Poverty. Women that speak out clearly all
of their anger, worry, dreams and demands
in No Way to Live by anti-poverty activist
Sheila Baxter.

Baxter interviewed more than 50 women

during 1986 when she worked as a welfare

advocate in Vancouver’s Downtown East-
side. She asked these women three basic

_questions: Why are you poor? Do you think

you'll always be poor? What do you think
could be done about it?

Their answers make up the largest part of
the book. Sometimes it is just one para-
graph, other times a page or two. After
reading all of them — some sad, some

Personal testimonies highlight
women’s fight against poverty

Of all the single women in
Canada today, 41 per cent live

below the poverty line. Over
80 per cent of unattached
elderly poor are women. Poor
children are 2'2 times more
likely to die from infectious
diseases and accidents than
are children of high-income
Canadians.

Anti-poverty activist and author Sheila
Baxter.

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Rose McEwen and family

resigned and discouraged, most angry, and
frustrated — it is the common problems
which become clear.

The lack of self-worth, the sense of being
“thrown away” by society, is expressed
many times. It is clear that for many of these
women the myth that there is something
fundamentally wrong with themselves still
prevails. They are poor because it is their
own fault, they are lazy, they made mis-
takes, they are dumb and didn’t get an edu-
cation.

The frustrations of getting tangled up in
the welfare system are often repeated. One
woman describes her fear of having a suc-
cessful operation to help her partial paraly-
sis as she would then be classified as
“employable” rather than “unemployable,”
which earns her a few dollars more a month.
A disabled woman describes how she is
treated differently from her friend by the
receptionist at the welfare office. The sys-
tem, she says classifies her as part of the
“deserving” poor. But, she asks, ““Why do
disabled women deserve to be poor?”

Baxter has also included in the book a
number of speeches and paper from anti-
poverty activists, many photographs, an
examination of the GAIN program in B.C.
and many statistical details of poverty in
Canada today.

Those statistics can be overwhelming. Of
all the single women in Canada today, 41
per cent live below the poverty line. Over 80
per cent of unattached elderly poor are
women. Poor children are 22 times more
likely to die from infectious diseases and
accidents than are children of high-income
Canadians. Poverty kills more people in
Canada than cancer. —

The women themselves offer many solu-
tions to .ending poverty. Raising welfare
rates to recognize the real cost of living is the
most frequent demand. Raising the min-
imum wage and income subsidies for the
working poor are also suggested. Meaning-
ful job training, more programs to build
affordable housing and hot meals for
hungry kids at school are high on the list of
actions needed.

And for some of the women the question
of where the money should come from to
end poverty is no puzzle at all. “Eliminate
the high amounts Canada spends on mil-
itary defence, the tax gifts and loans not
paid back by the corporations, the tax
breaks the rich get and you'd find the
money,” says a woman simply called Linda.

No Way to Live is a powerful book
because Baxter has let the women speak for
themselves — about their struggles, their
successes and their defeats, and their fears
and dreams for a better life.

But No Way to Live is more than a col-
lection of personal stories. It isa demand for

action and for change.
* — Angela Kenyon

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Pacific Tribune, July 6, 1988 « 7