You cannot be what you cannot see. So goes the motto for the 2011 documentary Miss Representation. Through a critical analysis of media portrayals, the film highlights the criticality of role models in encouraging young women to positions of influence.
In this regard, yesterday’s swearing in of Premier Rachel Notley and 11 new cabinet members – five of them women – is worthy of high praise. Indeed this is the first caucus in Canada to have true and full gender parity.
Additionally, there was hoopla around the overt naming of a Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, Shannon Phillips. While women’s equality work has been tucked inside the Human Services department for some time, this declaration could be an indication of the priority this government appears ready to place on long outstanding issues of inequality. Income disparity, child care, violence against women… the list is heavy and the lifting will be heavier still.
Each day in our work we see how past failures to address the systemic root causes of women’s vulnerabilities have left women (disproportionally Indigenous women, women of colour, women with disabilities and LGBTQ women) exposed to poverty, violence, unemployment and exclusion. For 104 years we’ve provided basic needs supports and adapted services to address complex challenges. More than 8,300 women and families sought support from the YWCA of Calgary last year and many more looked to three more Alberta YWCAs and other women’s organizations for help. Real change can and does happen one woman at a time.
We are hope-filled however that by naming a minister to this portfolio, due focus may now be paid to the broader policies (inadvertent though they may be Blog: What Alberta’s minimum wage structure says to women) which hold women back. As we reshape the social contracts under which we all exist to be more inherently fair, the opportunities for individual women are more readily available.
We congratulate Minister Phillips and look forward to working with her and her colleagues to build a safe and equitable community in which women can thrive.
