Election to the presidency | Will the Fédération des femmes du Québec take back “the collective voice”?

The Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) elects a new president this weekend. What course will she give him? Will the organization regain its central place in public debate?

Interview requests for the past few months with the outgoing president, Mélanie Ederer, have been in vain. It was just as impossible to interview Sylvie Saint-Amand, Marie-Jacques Samson and Félicité Ngadja, the three presidential candidates.

On its website, the Fédération des femmes du Québec states from the outset that the role of the future president will be difficult “because the polarization of Quebec society makes it difficult to speak out, to be exposed to the public and to articulate feminist positions.

This position is also “full of challenges” because “it is currently a paid part-time position”, it is also specified.

It is also “rewarding” work for a feminist, we can also read.

Redefine the organism

In recent months, the FFQ has been thinking about redefining itself.

Although present on social networks, the FFQ and the Council for the Status of Women are very much erased in the traditional media. Because of this, notes the author Pascale Navarro, “women no longer have a collective voice”.

President of the Fédération des femmes du Québec from 1994 to 2001, Françoise David agrees.

As for the Council on the Status of Women, she observes that “the appetite for public speaking varies according to the presidents”, from mandate to mandate.

As for the Federation of Quebec Women, Ms.^me David admits that she would find it very difficult to be in charge at this time.

When she chaired the organization at the end of the 1990s, “the fight against poverty imposed itself as a major unifying theme”.

Then, “prostitution and sex work, religious signs, gender diversity, secularism” were all subjects on which “women were deeply torn and on which remain very divided”, analyzes -t- She.

M^me David also recalls the harsh aftermath of the controversies raised by Gabrielle Bouchard. The first trans woman elected to head the organization in 2017, she had promoted the wearing of the veil and publicly advocated the abolition of relationships between heterosexual couples. She quickly had to resign afterwards.

Pascale Navarro also puts forward the hypothesis that social networks, by multiplying points of view and public speaking, have somehow eclipsed the large groups of women.

Not impossible either, she continues, “that we are witnessing a post-metoo undertow”.

The fact that the presidency of the FFQ is “a job poorly paid, discredited, not easy, with all this violence on social networks”, does not help, she finally points out.

” Silence “

Martine Delvaux, writer and professor in the department of literary studies at UQAM, is also sorry for the “silence” of large groups of women. It is explained, for the Fédération des femmes du Québec, by its underfunding.

“But the silence of the Council for the Status of Women is an astonishing choice. »

Questioned by The Press who submitted these comments to her, President Louise Cordeau believes that the Conseil du statut de la femme is indeed present in the public arena.

Its role, “is to advise the government on equality issues and to inform the public”.

Since she has been president, she has never signed a text with her own hand in the pages of the debates of the major newspapers, she agrees. The Council, she explains, relies mainly on social networks and on the Women’s Gazette in its communications.

Between insiders, it is emphasized. Yes, but that does not prevent social networks and Women’s Gazette ensure a very good influence on the Board, says Ms.^me Cord.

Be that as it may, Naïma Hamrouni, professor of philosophy and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Feminist Ethics at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, believes that feminism remains “very much alive”.

She sees this at university, “where microprograms in feminist, gender and sexuality studies are multiplying all over Quebec”, but she points out that she is also regularly called upon to give conferences in feminist trade union, community and associations”.

On Facebook, the Fédération des femmes du Québec seems in any case to have no blind spot. Sexual diversity, taboos around menstruation, the commemoration of the Poly massacre, violence against sex workers, wage discrimination, unsanitary prisons for women, heteronormativity: it’s all there.

But can the Fédération des femmes du Québec suffer from its numerous hobbyhorses? Chantal Maillé, professor of women’s studies at Concordia University, observes that many young women are at the Fédération des femmes du Québec, which is fortunate, and that their concerns are interrelated. “They will speak, for example, of ecofeminism,” she illustrates.

It is up to these young people to see how they will articulate their action, and M^me Maillé remains optimistic for the Quebec Women’s Federation. “Because of its history, it remains a benchmark organization. »

Note that the young feminists arrested in recent days were not available to offer their comments, while some replied that they did not wish to offer their point of view on the subject.