RESEARCH/INFORMATION
This section contains links to sites that provide information on issues such as violence against women, and current and historical research material from the Canadian government and other sites. This information is presented in alphabetical order.

About Fundamentalism (www.whrnet.org/fundamentalisms/about.html) In November 2002, WLUML convened a major international meeting on the "Warning Signs of Fundamentalisms" (WSF) which included active allies from outside the immediate WLUML network who are working on similar issues, such as Women Against Fundamentalisms, Sisters in Islam, and Catholics for a Free Choice. Their participation helped to expose the generic features of fundamentalisms and to further strengthen analysis and resistance. The key to understanding and counteracting fundamentalisms lies in the ability to pool information and to create strategies across countries as well as across communities. During the meeting, a number of participants expressed interest in working on building a web resource and to continue the process of information and strategy sharing. The result is this WHRnet web-resource, a project of AWID, Rights and Democracy and WLUML.

African-American Women - On-line Archival Collections (scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/collections/african-american-women.html) is an extensive site dedicated to African-American women's history in the United States . Some primary source documents are analysed on-line, such as the letters of slaves to friends and family, and former owners. There are also good links to other African-American history sites.

Behind The Mask (www.mask.org.za/) Behind the Mask is an organisation that aims to empower and support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in Africa - politically, culturally, socially and economically, by the gathering of information. Therefore, the organisation publishes an independent website magazine on gay and lesbian affairs in Africa and explores opportunities offered by ICT (Information and Communication Technology) as well as ways in which these opportunities can be made accessible to LGBT people in Africa.' On this well-organized site you can access opinion pieces, features and reviews of African artists, news updates, advice on how to become more active on the issues, and a look at Africa country by country.

The Black American Feminism Web site (www.library.ucsb.edu/blackfeminism/) is an extensive bibliography of Black American Feminist thought from across the disciplines. References date back to the early nineteenth century. The citations come from professional, scholarly, popular, mainstream and alternative magazines, journals, newspapers, and books. The majority of the references are by self-defined Black feminists and written about the Black American female experience. However, the bibliography is not limited to such materials. Included are works which do not explicitly propose to take a Black feminist stance, but manifest Black feminist thinking by employing at least a race and gender analysis. Some sources are more descriptive than analytical. The one theme evident througout all of the works is the desire for social change.

Blackgirl International (www.blackgirl.org) is composed of sites that are suggested by its readership. The site is intended to give black women the opportunity to see World Wide Web pages devoted to, written about, and written by black women. Here you'll find the uplifting, the empowering, the thought-provoking, and even occasionally the controversial. The only criterion for inclusion on these pages is that the content is about black women , contains content of particular importance to black women , or that the authors are black women . On this site you will find links to sites that are rated by Blackgirl International and which refer to a massive range of issues.

The Canadian Council on Social Development (www.ccsd.ca) (CCSD) promotes better social and economic security for all Canadians. A national, self-supporting, non-profit organization, the CCSD's main product is information and its main activity is research, focussing on concerns such as income security, employment, poverty, child welfare, pensions and government social policies.

Canadian Health Network (www.canadian-health-network.ca) CHN is a national, non-profit, bilingual web-based health information service. CHN's goal is to help Canadians find the information they're looking for on how to stay healthy and prevent disease. CHN does this through a unique collaboration - one of the most dynamic and comprehensive networks anywhere in the world. This network of health information providers includes Health Canada and national and provincial/territorial non-profit organizations, as well as universities, hospitals, libraries and community organizations. You do general searches, or browse particular information for women, or children, for example.

The Canadian Women's Health Network (www.cwhn.ca) (CWHN) was officially launched in May, 1993 by women representing over 70 organizations from every province and territory in Canada . It is committed to sharing information, resources and strategies to better women's health. On this site, you will find links, statistics and easy-to- search articles about women's health.

The Centres of Excellence for Women's Health (www.cewh-cesf.ca) funded by Health Canada (www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/women/index.html), strengthens policy-focused research on women's health in Canada by providing unique opportunities for collaboration among community-based women's health groups, service providers and academic researchers. This site offers links to publications, research bulletins, working groups and other centres across Canada .

The Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies (www.edu.yorku.ca/caas )

(CAAS) is dedicated to improving what all students learn about Aboriginal Peoples. CAAS works to ensure that all students in Canadian classrooms are exposed to Aboriginal-perspective content throughout their elementary and secondary education. To accomplish this, CAAS helps teachers and others in the education community handle Aboriginal-perspective curriculum and resources. On this site you can find Aboriginal-perspective content, and links to First Nations researchers, activists and political representatives. However, this site does not include a comprehensive list of all Aboriginal organizations and political representatives in Canada .

Frequently updated, CoolWomen (www.coolwomen.org) has a new and interesting (well-researched) story about women's history at least every month. The site has a huge archive of stories about a wide range of women's histories in Canada . The site is easy to navigate and also has chats and bulletin boards.

The Disability Research Information Page (www.ccsd.ca/drip) is supported by the Canadian Council on Social Development and is a good resource for research on disability issues in Canada . Although DAWN Canada (www.dawncanada.net) should perhaps be considered before this page, the Disability Research Information Page is one of the few other organizations producing up-to-date research on the lives of people living with disabilities in Canada . On it you will find reports, statistics, and many useful links.

Early Canadiana On Line (www.canadiana.org/eco/english/collection_women.html)
Early Canadiana Online (ECO) is a digital library providing access to over 1,630,000 pages of Canada's printed heritage. It features works published from the time of the first European settlers up to the early 20th Century. This site includes a section on Women's History in Canada, and suggestions on where to find follow-up information using their main site.

Enablelink (www.enablelink.org) links people with disabilities to a world of resources. The resources include Abilities Magazine, a library, and a women with disabilities violence prevention resource guide. Also contains links to community resources such as classified ads, announcements, an events listing and much more.

Fahamu (www.fahamu.org) Fahamu (which means ‘understanding’ or ‘consciousness’ in Kiswahili)has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential. Fahamu is committed to serving the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change and that promote and protect human rights. They believe that civil society organisations have a critical role to play in defending human rights, and that information and communications technologies can and should be harnessed for that cause. they are committed to enabling civil society organisations to use the internet to promote social justice.

Fahamu uses information and communication technologies as a tool for social change by: developing supported distance learning materials for human rights and civil society organisations; developing innovative ways to make information and learning for change accessible; being a catalyst for critical social debate. Note that under their ‘Links and Resources’ you will find “Writing For Change” which has sections deveoted to how to write for advocacy, and media for advocacy purposes; producing social justice e-newsletters; and undertaking social policy research.

Family Pride Canada (familypride.uwo.ca) is a project of the University of Western Ontario Research Facility for Gay and Lesbian Studies. It serves as a national online resource centre for queer parents, prospective parents, their partners, children, families and allies. It offers a library, legal resources, a newsletter and the Mommy Queerest ‘Zine.

La Fédération nationale des femmes canadiennes-françaises (www.franco.ca/fnfcf/) est une organisme nationale avec des membres a chaque province et territoire. Sur ce site on retrouve une méchanisme effective pour chercher l'histoire des femmes francophones au Canada et plusieurs sites representant les organismes francophones par et pour les femmes francophones. De plus, La Fédération nationale des femmes canadiennes-françaises investit concrètement dans l'autonomie financière des femmes par offrir les bourses d'études. Certaines page sont encore en construction.

The Florence Bird Memorial Library (http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/resources/library_e.html ) of Status of Women Canada (SWC) is first and foremost a service aiming to enhance the quality and availability of information and research to support SWC's goals and programs. The library specializes in publications by Status of Women Canada. Rather than searching the site, you are able to submit specific reference questions to librarians who assist you in your search.

The FREDA Centre for Violence Against Women and Children (www.harbour.sfu.ca/freda) is one of five violence research centres across the country that were established in 1992 through a five year grant from Health Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Since its inception, the Centre's mandate has been to facilitate and conduct research on violence against women and children, in order to raise awareness and effect policy. The Centre works with community groups, frontline service providers, and policy-makers to produce research that is relevant and useable. On this site you can download many of their reports for free

FTM International (www.ftmi.org) is the internet contact point for the largest, longest-running educational organization serving FTM transgendered people and transsexual men. This site provides information, a newsletter and other publications, as well as online mailing lists and links. The organization also offers volunteer councilors, monthly meetings and special events.

The Herstory Timeline (http://herstory.womenspace.ca/timeline.html) is an initiative of Womenspace Association (http://womenspace.ca) that summarizes major events in women’s organizing and activism over the last 30 years.

Hot Peaches Pages www.hotpeachespages.net
This site provides a global list of hotlines, shelters, refuges, crisis centres and women's organizations, searchable by country, plus abuse information in over 70 languages.

H-Gender-MidEast (www.h-net.msu.edu) is an international electronic network for social scientists and humanists interested in scholarly exchange on issues of gender in the Arabic speaking Middle East & North Africa, Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Central Asia, Western Asia, the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa. It aims to build a network in tune with shifting geographical articulations and to bring together gender-focused issues from within a wide range of (inter) disciplinary positions. This list's homepage offers recently published articles of interest and an archive of discussions.

The women's page of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (www.ipu.org/iss-e/women.htm)

(IPU) focuses solely on information about women in democratically-elected positions. The IPU is the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and co-operation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy. On this site you will find statistics, about women's status in parliaments world wide.

The Intersex Society of North America (www.isna.org) (ISNA) is a US based organization devoted to systemic change to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital surgeries for people born with atypical reproductive anatomies. ISNA works to end the idea that intersexuality is shameful or freakish. On this site you will find information about intersexed people by and for intersexed people and their parents. There is medical information, reading material, and many useful links.

Lesbian.org - promoting lesbian visibility on the Internet (www.lesbian.org) is both an internet campaign and an organization that provides research links to a wide range of sites about lesbian lives, sexualities, organizations that deal with politics, arts and culture, inventories of discussion lists on a huge range of subjects.

Links to Women's History in Canada (www.academicinfo.net/canhistwomen.html) is a searchable listing of thousands of sites related to the topic. It is part of a website called Academic Info that selects, organizes, and reviews quality educational websites to make the increasing avalanche of information on the Internet accessible to students in an easy-to-use online directory. You search the sites using keywords much like you would in a regular library.

Minnesota Centre Against Violence and Abuse (www.mincava.umn.edu/library/read/) provides research, education, and access to violence related resources. This site is one of the most comprehensive, widely used resources for violence related material on the Internet today. The Clearinghouse provides an extensive pool of resources about various types of violence, survivor and service provider resources, educational syllabi, published research, funding sources, upcoming training events, and searchable databases of training manuals, videos and other educational resources.

The National Library of Canada’s (www.collectionscanada.ca/women/) site on Celebrating Women’s Achievements is a good archive of information about famous women in Canada and their accomplishments. Short stories about each woman are easy to locate and include those who have excelled in the arts, science and technology, the Olympics, and politics.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (www.nmwa.org) is located in Washington D.C. and is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to recognizing the contributions of women artists. The Museum brings recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities by exhibiting, preserving, acquiring, and researching art by women and by educating the public concerning their accomplishments. The website offers profiles and portfolios of the women artists from the 16 th through 21 st centuries.

The National Women's Reference Group on Labour Market Issues / Le Groupe de référence national des femmes sur la problématique du marché du travail (www.nwrg-grnf.ca) (NWRG / GRNF) comprises representatives from 17 national women's organizations and members at large.. In its nearly ten years of operation, it has developed a unique expertise on labour market issues and gender, and other equity considerations. On this site you will find helpful research links as well as entry points to other women's organizations who implement some aspect of labour activism such as the Native Women's Association of Canada, the Women in Trades and Technology National Network and the Congress of Black Women of Canada.

NetFemmes (netfemmes.cdeacf.ca) est un réseau pour et par les femmes, mis sur pied par le Centre de documentation sur l'éducation des adultes et la condition féminine (CDÉACF), organisme à but non lucratif dont la mission est la démocratisation des savoirs et la promotion des savoirs faire des réseaux de l'éducation des adultes et de la condition féminine, et développé en étroite collaboration avec les regroupements nationaux de groupes de femmes du Québec et le Réseau Québécois de chercheuses féministes.

The Ontario Women’s Justice Network (www.owjn.org) provides an online legal resource for women's organizations and individuals working on issues related to justice and violence against women and children. You will find information about various justice issues , such as sexual assault and partner abuse, a glossary of legal terms and commentary on laws and court cases pertaining to women's experiences, as well as links to other on-line resources. Women's organizations across the province are invited to include announcements in the What's New section. The Take Action section of this site offers a variety of opportunities to respond to violence.

People with a History (www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/index-am.html) is an online guide to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans- history compiled mainly by US based researchers. The site is composed of individual papers assembled to form 'chapters' in lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-history. Although some pages are a bit sweeping in their reporting, each link takes you to yet another site where different opinions are presented.

The Provincial Association of Transition Houses of Saskatchewan www.abusehelplines.org
The web site of the Provincial Association of Transition Houses of Saskatchewan provides help and information surrounding the issues of violence and abuse in relationships and in our society. It also provides links to services in every province.

Queer Resources Directory (www.qrd.org) The QRD is an electronic library with news clippings, political contact information, newsletters, essays, images, hyperlinks, and every other kind of information resource of interest to the GLBO community. Information is stored for the use of casual network users and serious researchers alike.

The Sexuality and Disability Webilography (www.bccpd.bc.ca/wdi/sex&dis.html) is the web-based bibliography of The Wellness and Disability Initiative of the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities. This extensive listing of resources available on the internet includes curricula, articles, books, newsletters, magazines, videos, audiotapes, websites, discussion forums, organizations, programs, practitioners and researchers worldwide. Specialized topics include 16 types of disability, and resources on children and youth, women, gay and lesbian, and sexual abuse and assault.

Spiderbytes (www.spiderbytes.ca) spiderbytes.ca is a service of the Teen Sex Information Program, a program of Planned Parenthood of Toronto and is funded by the United Way of Greater Toronto. spidberbytes.ca is designed to respond to questions about sexual health issues and to provide current information, links and referrals on a range of topics pertaining to healthy sexuality.

Survivor Project (www.survivorproject.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the needs of intersex and trans survivors of domestic and sexual violence through caring action, education and expanding access to resources and to opportunities for action. The organization provides presentations, workshops, consultation, materials, information and referrals to many anti-violence organizations and universities mainly in the United States. It also gathers information about issues faced by intersex and trans survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Some information on the website may be dated but this is still an almost unique and very helpful source of information.

Statistics Canada (www.statcan.ca) is a good place to start for any statistics-based research. The site provides many downloadable documents as well as email ordering. On this site you will also find daily updates on the state of the economy, employment rates and many other issues.

Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources (www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/fcmain.htm) contains news of the latest print and audiovisual resources for research and teaching in women's studies. Recent book reviews have treated such subjects as African American women writers, lesbians in popular culture, and globalization. There are guides to new bibliographies and reference works, film and video critiques, computer updates, and news of out-of-the-way materials -- pamphlets, reports, rare book dealers' catalogs, microforms, and more. Thoughtful articles by experts explore women's publishing, Internet resources, library organization, archives, and other tools for feminist scholarship. New periodicals and special issues of journals in other disciplines are announced in each issue. Can we say anymore? This site is a tiny bit tricky to navigate, but please persist to find some of the best bibliographical collections around.

WHRNET (www.whrnet.org/) Founded in 1997, WHRnet aims to provide reliable, comprehensive, and timely information and analyses on women's human rights in English, Spanish and French. WHRnet updates readers on women's human rights issues and policy developments globally and provides information and analyses that support advocacy actions. A team of regionally based content specialists provides regular News, Interviews, Perspectives, Alert and Campaign information, and Web Highlights. The site provides an introduction to women's human rights issues worldwide; an overview of UN/Regional Human Rights Systems; a Research Tool that serves as gateway to the best available online resources relevant to Women's human rights advocacy; and a comprehensive collection of related Links. WHRnet News: A Global Link to Women's Human Rights News, Views and Analysis is their regular e-bulletin. (To subscribe, email whrnet-news-l-request@whrnet.org with the word "subscribe" in the subject line).

Women and the Holocaust (www3.sympatico.ca/mighty1/ ) This site brings to light the unique circumstances that women faced during the Holocaust. Because the National Socialists of Germany sought a total genocide of the Jewish peoples, there resulted one of the first systematic destructions of women and children, a group which had been historically been treated as the 'spoils' of a war. As well, Jewish women carried the extra burdens of sexual victimization, pregnancy, childbirth, rape, abortion, the killing of newborns, and often the separation from children.

The Women's Health Matters Resource Database (www.womenshealthmatters.ca/index.cfm) is a searchable bilingual database of women's health resources. Funded by the Ontario Women's Health Council , the database provides women with information about where to find women's health resources to support their health-care decision-making. The database contains descriptions of books, periodicals, audiovisual and multimedia materials as well as websites.

The purpose of the Women's Human Rights Resources (www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/diana) Web Site is to provide reliable and diverse information on international women's human rights via the Internet. On this site you will find documents helpfully organized under headings such as violence against women, age of marriage, women in Afghanistan, as well as FAQ sheets, case collections and publications.

WomenWatch (www.un.org/womenwatch) acts as an entry point to the work of a variety of United Nations (UN) agencies focused on women and gender at the UN. Use this site as the entry point for UNIFEM and many other divisions within the United Nations who provide statistical updates, position papers and other information about the well-being of women around the world.

Right2bfree (www.right2befree.org) is produced by young women survivors of violence for other women at St. Christopher House, Toronto. It is a site about women and violence and assists the visitor in determining whether she is experiencing an abusive relationship and if so, what she should do about it. Counseling information is interspersed throughout the site.

The Sexuality Education Resource Centre (www.serc.mb.ca) , Manitoba (SERC) is a community-based, non-profit, pro-choice organization committed to promoting universal access to comprehensive, reliable information and services about sexuality and reproductive health issues. The organization specializes in doing sexuality and health education work in communities in Manitoba and abroad. The site is remarkable for its stance on anti-racism and anti-homophobia and a sensitively constructed resource page on Female Genital Cutting/Female Genital Mutilation (FGC/FGM).

The Vancouver Rape Relief Shelter (www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca) in British Columbia provides services directly to women who have experienced rape and other forms of assault. On this site you will find current links to Canadian media about violence against women, information about counseling and some links to other shelters in Canada. The site also has position papers and news articles in the Issues (www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/issues/issues.html) page about the Kimberly Nixon human rights case.