Program for OWHN 2026 Conference

The OWHN 2026 Conference is offered in conjunction with the Ontario Federation of Labour Women’s Committee

Women United: Women Power Work Stories in Action

Location: Ontario Federation of Labour, 895 Don Mills Road, Tower 2, Suite 600, Toronto
Paid Parking Onsite

Day 1) Friday October 2, 2026 – 6:00-8:00 PM

  • 6:00-6:15 – Welcome
  • 6:15-6:30 – Vera Zoricic – ‘Women, Labour, and Canadian History’
  • 6:30-7:30 – Women Power Work: Then, Now, Next: A ‘Kitchen Table’ Conversation with Peggy Nash and Laura Walton on 50 Years of Women Changing the Labour Movement.
  • 7:30-8:00 – Questions and Networking
    • Prize Draw: Free copy of the book “Women United: Stories of Women’s Struggles for Equality in the Canadian Auto Workers Union”.

Day 2) Saturday October 3, 2026 – 8:30 AM-4:00 PM

  • 8:30-9:30 – Breakfast and Welcome
  • 9:30-10:30 – Panel 1: Biases and Banding Together: Women Working in Nontraditional Labour Settings
    • Silvie Rowe – ‘Not Welcome Anywhere but the Bedroom: Transfeminine Controlling Images, Bias, and Unemployment’
    • Emily Scott – “We Got Next: The Price of Progress”
    • Scarlett Gilespie – ‘No G-String, No Service: The Canadian Association of Burlesque Entertainers, Anti-Nudity Law, and the Whorearchy, 1978-1983’
  • 10:30-10:45 – Break
  • 10:45-11:15 – Joan Sangster – ‘Unsung Heroines: Women Labour Activists in 20th Century Canada’
  • 11:15-11:30 – Break
  • 11:30-12:30 – Panel 2: Lived Experience of Women’s Invisible Labour
    • Taylor Stefanovic ‘The Cost of Access: Single Mothers, Graduate School, and Invisible Labour’
    • Kateryna Nedashkivska – ‘From Newcomer to Community Builder: Ukrainian Women’s Labour and Care Work in Northwestern Ontario After 2022’
    • OFL Speakers
  • 12:30-1:30 – Lunch
  • 1:30-2:30 – Panel 3: Unpaid but Essential Women’s Labour History
    • Rachel Solylo – ‘Former Yugoslavian Women’s Immigration to Ontario and Unpaid Emotional Labour’
    • M. Eleanor McGrath – ‘An Evolution: From Ministry to Activism within the Sisters of St. Joseph’
    • Prize Draw: Free copy of the book “Women United: Stories of Women’s Struggles for Equality in the Canadian Auto Workers Union”.
  • 2:30-2:45 – Break
  • 2:45-3:45 – OWHN AGM
  • 3:45-4:00 – Wrap Up