With the federal government showing a commitment to gender equity in cabinet, with three female provincial premiers ruling, with a third of B.C. MLAs being female and with a woman sitting in the mayor’s chair at Salmon Arm’s city hall, there are improvements to the status of women worthy of celebrating on International Women’s Day, March 8.
Girls can see evidence that their aspirations no longer need stop at or be limited to careers as a mother, a nurse or a teacher – as was the case not so long ago. Girls can see women occupying a variety of positions of power.
This is indeed worthy of celebration.
And there is still much to be done. It’s telling that one-third of MLAs and three of 13 premiers is considered a big improvement.
Little girls get messages that how they look is of prime importance, violence against women continues unchecked in many realms, women are paid less for doing work of equal value. The World Economic Forum’s latest research, Global Gender Gap Report 2015, predicts it will now take 117 years to close the gender gap – a gap that is widening in business, not narrowing.
The world can only be a better place when the voices and minds of women have influence. And that won’t happen easily without a directed effort from those already in power.
