Today (March 8) is International Women’s Day.
It’s a day that’s marked since the beginning of the 20th century throughout the world to not only highlight the achievements of women, but also show how far some areas of the globe need to progress to ensure that women are active members of society.
This year’s theme is pledging for parity, which asks women and their male allies to “help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias,” according to the official International Women’s Day website.
I had the opportunity to attend the annual women’s day tea at the Grand Hotel Sunday, which along with a showcase of the diverse ethnic backgrounds shared by women in this community, highlighted the pressing issues faced by women in a host of different countries. For example, Ecuador has the highest ratio of female representation in government with more than 40 per cent, while 70 per cent of its women faced domestic violence.
Canada fared marginally better. Although federal Cabinet is made up of 50 per cent women, only about 26 per cent of the House of Commons is represented by women. More than half of Canadian women have experienced physical or sexual assault.
We have made some progress. Our own Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Sheila Malcolmson managed to get governing party support for her motion in the House of Commons to remove the pay gap between men and women in the federal government. Just like gender parity in Cabinet sends a message of leadership to the private sector – and public sectors in provincial and municipal governments – removing the pay gap hopefully will spur action in the private sector as well.
But while legally we make great strides in gender parity, morally we might not be moving as quickly. I’ve lectured in previous columns how abhorrent I find it that victims of robbery or assault are blamed for not knowing better than to visit the places in which they were assaulted.
But again, there is hope. Our new chief administrative officer for the first time ever is a woman. Tracy Samra was the keynote speaker at the women’s day event and discussed the possibilities of improving the representation of women within municipal government through hiring practices and the use of co-op work opportunities. Hopefully through Samra’s leadership we’ll see more women around the table at City of Nanaimo’s managers’ meetings.
Canada is lucky to have elected a government that values women’s contributions to all aspects of life – social, economic, political and cultural. Other countries are not so fortunate.
The World Economic Forum estimates that the world will reach gender parity sometime around 2133 – or in about 118 years. That’s assuming that we continue on the same course of legal precedents that uphold a woman’s reproductive rights, action to end violence against women and encouragement of women’s participation in all aspects of society. And that other countries catch up to the Canadian example.
I shudder to think what year gender parity will be pushed back to if the likes of Donald Trump are elected leader of the free world.
editor@nanaimobulletin.com