By: Tanner (Residence Advisor in Salish)
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines feminism as “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes”. It is not the singular promotion of women’s rights over all others or the demotion of men’s rights. On September 20th , Emma Watson gave a quivering, yet passionate speech at the United Nations Headquarters about eradicating the notion that man-hating and feminism where one and the same. This speech by Watson, a U.N. Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, was to launch the “HeForShe” campaign, which advocates for the involvement of men and boys in ending gender inequality. So far 158,730 men worldwide have signed on to take a stand for gender equality, 10,474 of which are from Canada. While this is a good start there is still a very long way to go, and as it stands there is no country in the world that can claim that it has reached gender equality.
Canada itself has a very long way to go before it is anywhere near to reaching gender equality. According to the government of Canada, women are still much less likely to be employed than men, and if they are employed it is much more likely to be in part-time positions. Canada lags drastically behind many other countries when it comes to representation of women in politics, with a mere 25% of the parliament being made up of women. If Canada continues to progress at the same rate that it is currently progressing it will take women a staggering 228 years to reach equality with men. If Canadians embrace the concept of men assisting to break down gender barriers that the “He For She” campaign promotes, then reaching gender equality will be much a quicker process.
Follow