Women are People, Too

As Aretha said: Sisters are Doing it for Themselves!

Go up to your mother, aunt, grandmother, sister, neigbhour, teacher or office worker and ask her: Are you a person?

The activity may seem absurd, but only 75 years ago, women were not considered persons in Canada, at least not under the law.

Although most Canadian women were given the right to vote by 1920, they were not considered “persons in matters of rights and privileges” under the British North American Act and could not be appointed to the Senate.

In 1927, Emily Murphy, one of Canada’s first female judges, got the support of four of her colleagues in an attempt to gain the right of “person” for women. Murphy and her supporters had been lobbying for almost ten years and their fight led Murphy, to take the issue to the top – first, to the Supreme Court of Canada, and then to the Privy Council in London, England.

This resulted in a ruling by the Privy Council – that overruled Canada’s Supreme Court – on October 18, 1929, that stated: “and to those who ask why the word ‘persons’ should include females, the answer is, why should it not?”

The case, known as the Persons Case, was a huge victory for women in Canada and paved the way towards equality in all aspects of our society. Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Muir Edwards and Irene Parlby became known as “the Famous Five” and became part of Canadian women’s history.

For more Canadian women history go to: www.4corners.ca

Canada misses top ten in Gender Equality

Is it a surprise? Nordic Europe is the guiding light in gender equality. This is a region of the world that places quality of life and standard of life far above economic interests -- or perhaps they appreciate the fact that economic interest is always taken care of when we take care of our own.

Rather than focus on lowering taxes (the financial base with which to offer national programs and establish equalization plans) these countries focus on developing and nurturing all segments of their population. The result? Well, the obvious result, right now, is their high ranking in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report. The longer-term, less-obvious results deal with a higher standard of living than North America, a stronger social network than most Western democracies and an economic system that is based on educating it's population not lowering taxes for businesses.

To put it bluntly: Nordic Europe tops the list for gender equality out of 115 countries in the world. That's no small feat. The countries boast the
world's best maternity leave, the best political participation rates and an education system in which women now outnumber men.

The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2006 named Sweden as the world's most progressive country when it comes to quality of the sexes, followed by Norway, Finland and Iceland.

Ranking the countries according to economic participation and opportunity, education, political empowerment and health and survival, Canada came in 13th and the United States ranked 29th. The small Middle East nation of Yemen came last in the global list.