Today is International Women’s Day, and we will resist the temptation to say, “You’ve come a long way, baby.”
Although it is true and yet ironic in so many ways.
The #metoo movement is seeing women and their allies discover that solidarity and speaking truth to power is not only the way to change things, but also a way to free oneself. But it’s also a little bit like taking the measurement of exactly how deep misogyny runs in our society.
Women who have challenged their abusers have been praised for their courage. But they have also been attacked and shamed.
And, of course, it has been the women who are in relative positions of economic safety that have been the first to have their stories told. The media, as usual, gravitates to celebrities for their stories.
Meanwhile, poor women, immigrant women and Indigenous women’s #metoo stories are usually only told when they result in murder trials or missing women inquiries.
The toll that sexism takes on women is immense.
Women still make 74 cents to every dollar a man earns and the separate value of women’s work in the home has now been lost in the “new” economy where everyone except the rich seem to be struggling.
Yes, there’s no doubt women have come a long way.
Women have the vote, equal treatment at work, as defined under human rights, reproductive freedom and the freedom to marry who they want to marry. And girls growing up today know that they can play hockey, become a scientist, or be a full-time mom – if they so choose.
But that doesn’t mean that all of those doors are wide open and welcome mats are out. The truth is that just when you think you’ve broken a barrier, there’s another one to break.
Thankfully, as women break those barriers they learn about the women who broke trails for them before they got there. They learn that every woman who challenges sexism in any way, makes a difference for all women everywhere.
