International Women's Day
FTLComm - Tisdale - Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The basic issue is that of human rights. All people by their membership in the human race are, according to our Canadian constitution, that of our neighbours and all members of the United Nations afforded equal human rights. Everyone agrees on basic human rights, yet here we are 100 years since the first International Women's Day still in dire need, world wide, in doing something about the dramatic lack of equality in this world.
Though Canadian women were able to secure the right to vote during the first world war it was not until October 18, 1929 that they were officially and legally declared to be "persons." In 1972 we had purchased a car that had some quirky mechanical problems. My wife, a college educated person and very definitely a person, found it was impossible for her to take that Oldsmobile into Regina Motor Products because the staff would not discuss the problems with the vehicle with her, but wanted to deal with her husband. I remember how I was taken aback by this gender treatment and as father of sons it troubled me that our children would be faced with living in a world where gender issues were still existent. But that was thirty-nine years ago and it would not surprise me one bit, if my sons' spouses did not encounter the same treatment today.
For some reason we are not advancing. My mother made it clear to me that she was an equal partner in her marriage and expected to be treated equally at work and in society. She expected to be paid the same wage as a man doing the same work and she demanded respect from everyone she encountered. Will things be the same for my grand daughters? Will they also have to prove themselves in education, careers and society?
We all read in the papers and see on television that women in much of the Muslim world are treated with less consideration than dogs and other livestock. We can see the way women from the Middle East who have come to live in Canada dress and act, as though they are not "persons". We also know that the discrimination of women and girls is not necessarily a religious issue, because honour killings in India by people who are not Muslim are outrageously common.
The horrors of other parts of the world, be it the treatment of baby girls in China, child prostitution in Indochina, genital mutilation in Africa, hunan trafficking in Eastern Europe and Central America and lack of career advancement for North American women. These are daily reported around the world and you would have to be a complete hermit not to know that things aren't right.
It is not enough to shake your head and consider it somebody else's problem. If one of us humans is denied human rights it affects us all. The savagery in places like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran are everyone's problem and the time is long past due when we as individuals and our institutions, apply the pressure necessary to enforce world wide human rights. I was amazed in looking over publications around the world and seen how International Women's Day was recognised right around the world but there was not a single reference in Saudi papers or those in Pakistan.
Let's start here in Canada and demand that the "law and order" Harper Government (that's the name for the Government of Canada now) turn its attention to violations of the Charter of Rights with sufficient torts that would make such violations unaffordable.
Internationally we must demand that international sports bodies respect Canadian law. The International Olympic organisation flaunted Canadian law with regard to women participating equally in the Vancouver Olympics by not allowing women to compete in ski jumping. Countries should not be allowed to compete in international competitions without meeting equal male and female participation. Even more importantly we need to demand that our governments break off formal trade and political dealings with countries that practice gender discrimination in their countries.
You may think such measures to be to extreme, but consider the dramatic lack of progress that we are seeing from year to year and decade to decade. Something drastic needs to done.
In the menu on the left you will see a list of references that give you some background to the United Nations involvement in International Women's day and gender equality. There are also some stories that give a world view of this important World event.
Photo credits: The base image in the composite is a Reuters picture taken in Chandigah India, March 8, 2011 and is of a protest by kindergarten workers demanding basic human rights. This picture appeared in the Sofia Echo from Sofia Bugaria. The athlete in the picture is Italy's Simona La Mantia who won the triple jump in the European International indoor meet in Paris March 8, 2011. The image was taken by Charles Platau of Reuters and appeared in the March 8, Vancouver Sun.