International Women’s Day, observed on Thursday, March 8, is an essential event because it celebrates what it means to be female. It represents a commitment to ending violence against women, raising awareness of the challenges faced by women in the workforce, and talking about issues like motherhood, family life, and equality.
While women are far from being universally accepted as on par with men, women’s rights have greatly increased since the women’s suffrage and feminist movements began. In Canada, much is being done to include more women in the workforce. Take for example the controversial decision to hire only women and minority groups at one Richmond Hill firefighting department, in part to accurately represent the population, and also to address female harassment in that profession.
But complete equality can never exist between women and men, since they are not the same in all respects. I am certainly not suggesting that men are superior to women or vice versa. In fact, I would be the first to hurl insults at any twit who suggested I am not his equal in intelligence simply because I am a female. Nor would I accept the nonsensical argument that men are unable to be caring fathers. But I do think we can admit that men and women are different, and if stereotypes exist, it is because to a certain extent they are based on reality. Women are by nature more nurturing, emotional and communicative than men, are there is nothing wrong with acknowledging that difference. Rather than a disadvantage for women, this trait should be seen as a privilege.
International Women’s Day invites us to reflect on our understanding of the 21st-century woman. Certainly, women are not the perfect homemakers depicted in the 1950s stereotype, nor can the image of Simone de Beauvoir-inspired bra-burning radical feminists of the 1970s be used to define them any longer. The modern notion of being female is grounded in the right to choose. It is a woman’s right to choose to become whatever she wishes-be it a housewife, a career woman, or both. It is her right to choose to cover her head or not, or to have an abortion or carry a pregnancy through to term. It is also her right to change her mind about who she wants to be as her needs and desires change. No longer is the definition of “feminist” a bitchy corporate woman with little sense of humour and unbridled ambition-unless of course, that is what she wants to be.
This conclusion was certainly not an easy one for me to reach. Being a fourth-generation feminist in a radical family meant that I had the “career woman who balances family life” definition of womanhood etched in my brain. The idea of getting married before completing my education was preposterous, even blasphemous. So it was with quite a bit of surprise that I realized some of my friends in university did not give two hoots about education. All they wanted was a husband to care for them, and lots of children. Even more surprising was that this was their own idea of the ideal life, not something their parents forced on them. This confirmed for me that to be a woman means having the right to choose one’s own destiny.
It is with this notion in mind that we should take a moment to consider the hardships many women face across the globe. Some struggle to support their families financially and must endure sexual or physical exploitation, while others are denied the right to vote, and still others forced into subservience. Their struggle to survive in the face of adversity is testimony to the strength of women everywhere, who should all be allowed to choose whatever path they like.
