I hope you are enjoying your first year at SMU. I saw the report on The National about Saint Mary's University's notorious frosh week chant, "... U is for underage, N is for non-consent." I understand that SMU is not very different from other Canadian universities but as your aunt, I am concerned for your safety. I hope you will take a minute to read this letter.
The news item contained some interviews with young women at SMU. One was with a student, a victim of rape, who said she cried for three hours after hearing the chant. Another was with a female student who said, "I'm not a feminist kind of person so it (the chant) didn't affect me personally." The contrast in their views couldn't be more stark.
Did feminism ever mean how it seems to be portrayed today, that is did the women's movement ever say that women are the same as men or that somehow women's rights are more important? Not in my memory. As a supporter of the women's movement for over 30 years, the call was always for equality, the equality of rights.
Many of us believed and still believe that women can engage in similar employment to men, especially in the modern workplace. Recent statistics bear this out as women are entering the sciences, engineering and business in record numbers. Today there are more young women like yourself in medical schools and in institutes of higher learning overall.
But the word feminism has been twisted to imply something it was never intended to mean, the denial of differences between men and women. When I was young we spoke of equal rights, not identical attributes. This false blurring of meaning has been used to discredit feminism and today it is rare for any young person to describe him or herself as a feminist. In the day, there were many young men who called themselves feminists.
I don't think I've told you what it was like for me as a student over 40 years ago. It was expected that your uncle would go onto university and there were financial arrangements made to assist him. I was told that I should go to a secretarial school as I would soon marry and higher learning would be wasted on me.
The differences did not end at the threshold and even though I was an excellent math student, I was not allowed to study drafting as it was considered to be for boys only. At university, there were no washrooms for women in some of the engineering and science buildings. Nothing says you're not welcome here like a lack of needed facilities.
When a professor of an organic chemistry lab course gave me a low mark in my third year at university, it turned out to be the final straw. I spoke to him about it and he said that if I rewrote the rough work in two lab books, he would increase my mark from a C to an A because in his words, "How will you get a job as a secretary with ink blotches in your work?" I was the youngest student in that class, the only woman, and there were no ombudsmen in Canadian universities at that time.
Erin, I can't help but compare your great-grandmother's and grandmother's lives to mine and feel I've been fortunate. I have had so many more opportunities. The women of your great-grandmother's time fought for the right to vote. They thought the vote would bring women political power. Still there are too few of us in elected office today.
In Granny's time, they fought for the right to be educated and today you are. And in my time, we fought for the right to work and reproductive rights because frankly, they go hand in hand. Did you know all types of birth control were illegal in the Quebec of my childhood? With any luck, you will find that with good qualifications, experience and hard work, most doors will be open to you.
In Granny's time, they fought for the right to be educated and today you are. And in my time, we fought for the right to work and reproductive rights because frankly, they go hand in hand. Did you know all types of birth control were illegal in the Quebec of my childhood? With any luck, you will find that with good qualifications, experience and hard work, most doors will be open to you.
Still you are privileged to live in Canada rather than India, where rape can be a death sentence. But how is it that Canada is becoming more like India in this way? All other rights count for nothing if women are raped and bullied to the point of ending their own lives.
Each generation makes the world anew. You have now been handed this torch, my wonderful niece. Make your contribution count.
Your loving aunt,
Pam
The views expressed in this blog are personal opinions only.
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