Current Events

For more updates and news see wc news.

Collective Meetings:    Collective meetings are usually held bi-weekly during the regular semester in the Women's Centre lounge.  Email the Women's Centre for more information.

The centre is located in the Student Union Building, Room B107.

Joining the collective is open to all self-identified women. The Women's Centre Policy Manual defines a self identified women as anyone who sees themselves/identifies as a women including, transwomen, those transitioning and those identified as female at birth.

The collective operates using the consensus model. SFPIRG has a helpful brochure on this process. No previous experience is necessary, and you can become a collective member after attending two consecutive collective meetings.


re-occuring activities and events we've done in the past - not in chronological order

Training and Free Workshops usually include, but not limited to: Consensus Decision Making; Gender isms and advocacy; Anti-Racism; Ableism and Anti-Oppression. Come and participate in them as volunteer training at the beginning of each school year.

Women's Centre 30th Anniversary: This year marks the 30th anniversay of the UVSS Women's Centre.  The 2011 edition of Thirdspace will commemorate thirty amazing years of the Women's Centre by incorporating articles from past editions, and by soliciting womens-centres themed submissions.

2011 Stolen Sisters Memorial March: The Women's Centre co-organized the 3rd annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women to honour and remember the 600+ missing and murdered Indigenous women from Vancouver Island and across Canada.  The march took place on Feb 13th. We met in front of Our Place (919 Pandora Ave,) and marched to Thunderbird Park.  Hundreds of marchers gathered for lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather with drumming and prayers.

2011 Panty Drive: In time for Valentine's Day, the Women's Centre gathered donations of new panties, chocolate and feminine hygiene products to send to Victoria's Prostitute Empowerment Education Resource Society (P.E.E.R.S.) and the Vancouver Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, who then distributed the donations to women in need.

Library:  2011- We are currently in the process of cataloguing the Women's Centre Library zine collection.  This process was initiated by Caitlyn, a dedicated co-op student whose term ended in the fall.  We also recently acquired a bunch of awesome new books and resources.

Red Umbrella Rally: December 17th 2010 - The Women's Centre collaborated with P.E.E.R.S. (Prostitutes Empowerment Education Resource Society) to organize a rally with speakers and lunch for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers "Red Umbrella Rally", and to protest the criminalization of sex work and continuing presence of violence in women's lives.  The Rally ended at the Legislature with lunch and speeches from current and former sex workers.

December 6th Memorial: December 6th is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada. It marks the tragic anniversary of the murders in 1989 of 14 young women at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal. They died because they were women.

On this day we remember violence against women in our society and recognize that it is a daily reality for women and in particular Indigenous and racialized women. We remember those who have died as a result of gender-based violence.


Take Back the Night: Take Back the Night’s roots may lie in 1877 when women protested the fear and violence they experienced in the night-time streets of London, England. Others believe that the first rally occurred in 1976 when women attending the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women lit candles and took to the moonlit streets of Belgium to denounce the continuation of violence against women. While the origins of Take Back the Night may be disputed, its impact is undeniable. Since its inception, thousands of marches and rallies bearing the name Take Back the Night have taken place worldwide.

Women's Centre volunteers, Women's Studies students and community members pulled together at the last minute to make the 2007 march a big success. Approximately 150 people participated including community members, high school students and students from UVic.

Trans Day of Rememberance: Equity and Human Rights, the Anti-Violence Project, the Women’s Centre and UVic Pride collaborated on organizing Trans Day of Remembrance.

Its goal was to remember all past victims of transgender-based hate crimes and to raise awareness of ongoing discrimination. In 2007 the non-profit orgnanication Gender Education and Advocacy (GEA) documented 11 murders of transgendered people, most of them in the United States. Over the past decade more than one transgendered person has been killed per month worldwide.


Resist Queer Bashing: Since Trans Day of Rememberance (TDOR) this year (2007) as many people have been killed as usually die in a year. Naturally, we cannot let this happen without comment…Speakers, listing the names of the dead, and A MASS “DIE-IN” (large group of people collapsing on the ground to represent the dead). Hosted by UVic Pride and Women's Centre. See article about this at sex ed exchange.


International Women’s Day:   Thursday, March 8, 2007, was a day to reflect on inspirational successes and the ongoing battles that women face, to voice our strength and our demands, and to connect with women across different communities. 

Recognizing that International Women’s Day is a way to celebrate progress while also addressing global systems of oppression that perpetuate the inequalities that women continue to face, both locally and globally, central issues chosen for focus this year include: Canadian Immigration and Refugee Policies; Status and Indigenous women; An end to war; and Non-Western Feminisms.

Friends, family, children, partners, loved ones, pets, community members marched from marched from UVic, met up with folks at Camosun and ended at Centennial Square. Activities at Centennial Square included free food with Food Not Bombs, silkscreening your own feminist or radical t-shirt, inspirational speakers, music and much more!

The day was rounded up with a Feminism is for Everyone Celebration at the Jamaican Jerkhouse with an evening of music and performances by inspiring and empowering women.


Women Confronting Imperialism:   On December 1st, 2006 the women's centre collaborated with a number of groups (see list & links below) to organize "Cultural Resistance to Imperialism & Colonialism: Linking Indigenous Solidarity in Chiapas on this island".

At Little Fernwood Hall there were two speakers. Chiinuuks, a local Nuu-chah-nilth woman, activist, and mother who has been involved in community politics for 12 years. She is currently completing her MA in the Indigenous Governance program at UVIC. Along with her daughter Muhwa and partner Darren she is one of the organizers of the stop the violence march in the Nuu-chah-nulth territories.

Cecilia Santiago Vera, a social psychologist from Chiapas, Mexico was also present and spoke. She talked about her work which is focused primarily on gender and multi-cultural studies and strengthening the community. She has worked with the dispolaced population, especially withy women survivors of the Acteal massacre, people in prison, and indigenous communities that live in violent contexts. Cecilia collaborates on the Psychological Project in Chialpas, a Mexican NGO that works to dvelop psychological interventions in populations experiencing human rights violations to take back the resources of the community. Cecilia's presentation was translated to english by a Mexico-US Solidarity Network staff person.

Mujeres por la Dignidad (Women for Dignity)- Participated via video message, Mujeres pr la dignidad is a cooperative of several hundred Zapatista ingigenous weavers in Chiapas, Mexico.

Collaborators included Central America Support Committee, Building bridges with Chiapas, Mexico Solidarity Network, Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation, Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Working Group, and Vacouver Island Public Interest research Group.



Anti-oppressive Workshops:   At the beginning of the semester collective members organized and attended several awareness raising workshops.

Concensus Model Workshop: What is the consensus model? Why do we adopt this model? How can we work as a collective using this model? How can we help to facilitate consensus individually?

Intro to Disability Issues:  A workshop highlighting the continued systemic and direct discrimination of people with disabilitiles, the history of the disability movement and how this fits into the academic institution, while considering the self education that able bodied persons need to do in order to unlearn ableist frameworks and attitudes.

Intro to Gender Topics:  A workshop and discussion on how we do gender. What does it mean to have a women's only space? What does this mean for people who don't fit a gender binary model? What does anti-transphobia look like and where do we go from here?

Anti-Racism Workshop:  Proma Tigore, editor of, "In Our Own Voices: Learning and Teaching Toward Decolonization" led this workshop and discussion on unlearning racism in a predominantly white and settler institution. What are the ways that racism impacts the women's centre collective? What kind of work needs to happen for settlers to work towards decolonization.