Girl Power

On the C-train there are posters which talk about empowering girls because 10.11.2012 was the International Day of the Girl.  Except for me reading the “Because I am a Girl” posters I have heard nothing about this day.  There was nothing on my radio station which boasts round the clock news, there was nothing on our TV station on that day.  If there was it went by so fast that I missed it.  No one of my acquaintance talked about it.  Why?

       Girls were in the news though.  On October 9^th Malala Yousafzai, the 15 year old Pakistani activist, was shot in the head by an assassin.  On October 10^th 15 year old Amanda Todd committed suicide after years of bullying.  Just not the kind of news anyone would want to happen.

       I was born in the 1950’s and was blessed with a very liberal pair of parents.  My father in particular raised me to believe that I was capable of anything and he taught me to view the world without the limitation of gender differences.  When I was only 17 he used me as an example to break down the barriers at the government agency that hired the federal meat inspectors.  I spent my Easter break in my senior year of high school working on the kill floor at Burns Foods in Winnipeg.  Then I wrote the examination to enter the lists as a federal meat inspector, got the interview and became the first woman in Canada to go on the list.  Just to prove a point.

       When I was 9 my father asked me what I wanted to be.  I said a nurse.  He said I was smart enough to become a doctor and I went through the rest of my public education with that goal in mind.  It never occurred to me that become a doctor or a lawyer was breaking through genders because I was raised not to think in those terms.  I had no idea that I was being raised in such a liberal environment until I started hearing from my friends that my parents were “very young” and “very radical”.  Really, my parents?

       Four decades later I realize that while there have been great strides made in the Western World regarding women and their opportunities the rest of the world is not keeping pace.  Even within our own country there are areas where women still haven’t reached parity with men.  The biggest gripe is still fundamental; wages in almost every sector still show a disparity between male and female employees.

       So we still have work to do to continue empowering girls and women everywhere.  So let’s make the second year of International Girl Day a little more widely known.  Mark your calendars!