Democracy is Strengthened When All Women are Free

WhenInternational Women’s Day rolls around on March 8th every year, I am reminded of my first women’s march in Edmonton when I was 6 years old. Over 40 years later, I am still standing up and fighting for collective liberation, equality, and justice. This fight is not over.

Although early feminist movements were exclusionary – in that they prioritized the voices of white, middleclass women – there was still a sense of collective resistance. This sense of collective resistance has been absent from International Women’s Day (IWD) in recent years. IWD has shifted instead to celebrate the individual accomplishments of women, rather than continuing the fight for collective liberation.

Of course, it is important to reflect on all the people who have paved the way for the rights and freedoms we enjoy today. But we cannot afford to celebrate where we have come from, without identifying where we are going. When we choose to only celebrate “the firsts,” and a curated selection of women who have broken through the glass ceiling, we are at risk of forgetting all the work that still needs to be done. A 2019 Statistics Canada report shows a striking income gap between women and men. This report identified the largest gap in BC: with women earning 18.9% less than men. These statistics get more dismal for Indigenous women (35% less), racialized women (33% less), disabled women (49% less), and trans women. Research shows that people with low incomes are more limited in their ability to participate politically. Income inequality is racialized and gendered and continues to undermine democracy. If we want a more democratic province, we need to identify the structural oppressions that limit women from participating in decisionmaking spaces. This starts with being aware of our own privilege and doing our part to amplify marginalized voices. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a pioneering scholar and civil rights advocate, coined the term “intersectionality” in the 1980s to describe how race and gender (among other factors), contribute to limiting the freedom of women. Democracy is strengthened when all women are free. Oppression is woven into the written laws and unwritten customs of our modern world, and all of us share the responsibility to change this. As Audre Lorde famously said, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” The path towards equality and justice is a lot longer than I had imagined when I was 6 years old. I will keep standing up for collective liberation because this fight is still not over.

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Deborah Carruthers BA, BSW, MA Counsellor and Wellness Practitioner

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