Description

Tape of the QMUNITY interview with Ellen Woodsworth.

Ellen was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1948 to a very socially progressive family; a torch that she carries with honor. Ellen spent her high school years in Japan, and then moved to Vancouver to complete her education at UBC. She both inherited and developed a great awareness of what was happening on the international stage, as well as her rights, responsibility, and privilege as a Canadian. In her teenage years, Ellen began to forge her own path as an ambassador for justice. Ellen helped to set up the Canadian Students for Nuclear Disarmament movement, and she organized a large cross-cultural symposium on Japanese culture for the foreign community in Japan.

Ellen grew up in a very activist milieu, where she learned to work for, and to be proud of women's rights. Ellen travelled across the country with the Abortion Cavalcade, set up the first Women's Centre at UBC, and in 1972, Ellen founded the feminist newspaper, The Other Women. Ellen remembers a time when she did not feel safe to come out as a lesbian, and she has in turn created countless safe spaces for women over the past 40+ years.

After working in the Downtown Eastside for ten years, Ellen was elected to city council in 2002. While recognizing the critical role of social movements, Ellen noted the possibility that her position granted her to take issues forward in a way that is difficult at an individual level. One of Ellen's proudest accomplishments was her work with the “When Women Count” campaign, to have women's unpaid work included on the Canadian Census. Ellen also co-chaired the Women's Task Force that developed a Gender Equality Strategy for the City of Vancouver. While on city council, Ellen helped a number of different groups, and tackled a number of issues including education, housing, homelessness, income assistance, mental health, women's rights, murdered and missing women, the spread of infectious disease, homophobia, and the lack of gender analysis of developments at the city level. Ellen was a founding board member of the QMUNITY Generations project.