Friday March 8, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC
Editorial commentary by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Another International Women’s Day, another year of noting both the advancements and the slideback for women in western culture.
In Canada during the pandemic many women slid back into at-home care of children and took a while to return to the workforce. In the USA last year the protection of women’s reproductive rights was set back by decades due to a right-wing supreme court. Though this week we saw counterbalance in France where they inscribed the guaranteed right to abortion in their constitution — a world first and a powerful message of support to women around the globe on International Women’s Day but also a reminder that such personal choices must be made usually in the face of economic or social pressure.
Despite all the work of feminists over the decades — and all the ‘right words’ spoken by politicians — men still enjoy benefits and advantages that allow their success to far outstrip the gains made by women. For every setback a woman experiences in terms of financial or social opportunity, the results are cumulative. The gap between men and women in Canadian society still widens as a result.
Free contraception in BC and now in Canada is certainly an advancement that could not have been imagined 50 years ago when ‘the pill’ first emerged to set the sexual revolution on its way. Sexual liberation has plenty of plusses but has also contributed to challenges for women in their adult lives as well as some strident expectations by men that have not necessarily favoured socioeconomic outcomes for women.
Advocating for ‘gender blind’:
I’ve long said that things might work best in society if people are ‘gender blind’. Hire and promote people based on skillsets and the contributions they can make to the workforce. Whether or not a person can reproduce human beings should not be a factor in any person being able to secure their economic reality.
All of this is up against millions of years of human biological evolution, and the power of money that many men have accumulated not to mention the modern setbacks that financial and corporate institutions levy against women. It will likely still be a long while until the impacts of patriarchy have been eliminated.
Governments still seem to focus on pay equity. But do they track the opportunities lost when women stay home on maternity leave?
Seniors in poverty:
Many senior women are left behind in poverty because they relied on the myths of the benefits of being the arm piece of their partner in a patriarchal arrangement. Women are also undermined by their own gender when they choose the benefits of patriarchy over those of their female colleagues and neighbours.
Trauma heaped upon women:
The trauma heaped upon women in this society is unending and at least symbolically barbaric. The impacts are seen in social, health, physical, economic and political realities. Women, rise up. For yourselves and your children — be part of the solution.
Gender-related violence is horrific, but society needs to take an honest look at how the system pressures people in partnered relationships to fulfill certain expectations that are as hard on men as they are on women.
Shunning Barbie:
While it might seem frivolous to mention that the actress who portrayed Barbie was shunned from getting any Academy Award nominations in this weekend’s upcoming ceremony, it was a huge patriarchal statement against beautiful women — when it is Hollywood that is so very much complicit in perpetuating the idea of physical beauty being an advantage for women. Celebrating beauty is a human joy, and to push back against the actress is a negative statement against the powers that be in Hollywood. The Barbie movie was a blockbuster last summer because it *critiqued* how society treats attractive females (and those who aren’t); was that message entirely lost on the film industry leadership?
Health-care discrepancies:
Women are still not treated equally in terms of receiving health-care, only in part because of financial disadvantage which accumulates into access disadvantage. One notable advancement in BC recently, however, is the availability of HPV testing at home (instead of having to make an appointment for a PAP test). Meanwhile health research that is specific to women’s health is still behind in terms of research funding.
One of the most important tools to bring women forward is education. A quality K-12 education is just the start. Quality post-secondary education is key to decision-making and success in adult life.
Ways for women to get ahead with authenticity:
- Be honest with yourself and the people in your personal life.
- Be strident and professional in your career life.
- Get a good education. Develop skills and also insights into how society and economy work.
- Work to avoid the impacts of the old boys network, and network with women in authentic ways.
- Speak up when you’ve been discriminated against due to gender.
- Make clear choices about lifestyle, family, and children. Fight for child care benefits other than placing your children in public day-care.
- Contribute to your community. Support the work of other women in community.
- Work from home when you can, while being engaged with career and community sectors.
- If self-employed or a business person, be sure not to miss out on benefits that corporate/government sector employees enjoy.
- Achieve a work-life balance that is appropriate for you.
- Don’t contribute to the demise of other women through participation in patriarchy.
- As parents, raise children — regardless of gender — to become their own full selves. Open doors for their talents. Be a parent for life.
===== RELATED:
- HPV tests at home may help boost patient-doctor attachment (January 9, 2024)
- Lifelong health consequences from alcohol during pregnancy (September 29, 2023)
- Barbie is back! (July 24, 2023)
- Mother’s Day 2023: women leading humanity forward (May 14, 2023)
- EDITORIAL on International Women’s Day: still room to grow (March 8, 2023)
- Thoughts on Mother’s Day 2022 (May 8, 2022)
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Mary P Brooke has been a life-long feminist. She led women’s rights groups while in university and was an elected post-secondary campus president. She participated in federal politics early in her career, and managed a federal urban food and nutrition community education program.
She did corporate communications work and published her own newspaper in Regina before moving to Vancouver Island in the mid-1980s.
Mary Brooke raised her beautiful family of four children on her own after a divorce, while operating her home-based business.
Ms Brooke operated an online training portal and publishing company in the dot-com era in Victoria, and then a print shop storefront in 2010-2013 in Sooke. She covered the news of the SD62 school district at the board and committee level during 2014-2022 and ran for SD62 school trustee in 2022.
Mary P Brooke holds a B.Sc. in food and human nutrition (U of S), and a university public relations certificate (U of R).
Mary P Brooke has proudly made her career in journalism and publishing, having founded a series of news publications on south Vancouver Island: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (2020 to present). In 2023 she was nominated for a Jack Webster Foundation Award for contributing to her community through journalism.
Mary P Brooke covered the BC news angles of the COVID pandemic daily during 2020-2022 and since then has reported with the BC Legislative Press Gallery. She has covered BC Budget 2022, 2023 and 2024. She still keeps an eye on local and regional political trends in the west shore of Greater Victoria.
In 2024, Ms Brooke is taking leadership in Urban Food Resilience. She is supporting the first community garden in Langford and will lead political advocacy for urban food resilience region-wide and province-wide.