From the time I was old enough to figure out that boys and girls were different, and that some cultures (including my own) seemed to value boys over girls, I wanted to prove that I could do better than what was expected of me as a girl. In high school, I took metal work classes and loved it, calculus because I needed it and sewing because it was fun. I refused to believe that because I am a girl, I couldn’t do well in a wood working class or take a full load of science classes.
I was dismayed when I first found out that women did not earn as much as men, even when they were performing the same duties and possessed the same amount of experience. I was even more horrified to find out that most individuals who live below the poverty line were women. (According to the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), in 2004, 2.4 million Canadian women lived below the poverty line. CRIAW goes on to state that single mothers, female seniors, aboriginal women, among other groups were the most likely to live below the poverty line.)
However, though women are more likely to be paid less or live in poverty, the topic of women’s safety is (in my opinion) even more important. According to the Statistics Canada report I used in my post, “Numbers”, violence against women can be thought of as being in the following categories:
1. Physical violence including threats of violence
2. Sexual violence
3. Psychological or emotional abuse
4. Financial/economic abuse or marital exploitation
5. Homicide
6. Criminal harassment/stalking
Though we like to think that this “sort of thing” happens to “other people”, I know that some of these have happened to women on campus during my last 5 years as a student. Not too long ago, I had a friend quietly let me know that there was an ex-boyfriend who was stalking her and that he would come to places on campus where we hang out in order to find her.
Stories like hers and stories that are not yet told are some of the reasons why I am writing on this topic.
