International Women’s Day

Hon. Céline Hervieux-Payette:

I would like to welcome these women. In a way, my remarks are a tribute to my female colleagues, and I invite all of my colleagues to join us as feminists.

Honourable senators, on this International Women’s Day, March 8, I want to talk to you about why feminism is relevant in 2016. First of all, the facts. Feminism, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” That makes perfect sense, and I am sure we can all agree with that definition.

In a nutshell, feminism refers to a set of movements and political, philosophical, and social ideas with a common goal: to define, establish and achieve the political, economic, cultural, personal, social and legal equality of men and women. It is a movement for gender parity and equal pay for equal work.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest appointed the first cabinet made up of equal numbers of men and women in 2007, and I am very proud of that. He did so again in 2008. He also made gender-balanced Crown corporation boards possible. In Canada, we got our first gender- balanced cabinet when the Liberals came to power thanks to Prime Minister Trudeau’s vision.

Honourable senators, the Senate has the highest level of female representation in Canada, but it’s still just 36 per cent, which is a far cry from the goal of 50 per cent. This can be rectified with future appointments.

According to Historica Canada, in the 1960s, feminism rejected all limits to the equality of women’s rights and showed that equality in daily life cannot be obtained through simple legal, political or institutional modifications. The proof in Canada is that the vast majority of legal texts and statutes are gender neutral.

The reality in 2016 is that a lot remains to be done before women are truly equal to men. Look at the lack of women in key positions in corporations and their glaring absence from boards of directors. Look at the pay gap for women who occupy the same positions as men, which can be up to 30 per cent less in some sectors.

The lack of equality for women can also be found in the disproportionate number of wrongs committed against them in every aspect of life, whether through specific acts, condescending attitudes or misconceptions. The recent cases involving Mr. Ghomeshi, Mr. Aubut, and General Lawson are examples of people with no understanding of feminism.

I invite all my colleagues, the men and women of this chamber, and all Canadians, to celebrate Canadian women today so that we can work together, as parliamentarians, to achieve real equality in the future.