Prime Time Crime
(Published in the Chilliwack Times week of Jan. 8, 2007)
There, there, poor little girl - Stephane Dion will take care of you
By
John Martin
You really have to wonder about at all these people screaming on account of Stephen Harper closing 12 of 16 Status of Women offices. They’re ranting and raving that his government is anti-female and wants to return to the days of barefoot and pregnant women confined to the kitchen. What a bunch of hysterical nonsense.
While this program has shoveled a chunk of money and resources to radical feminists, muckrakers, and other special interest groups over the years (and garnered votes for the Liberals), it has been completely irrelevant to the great strides and advances women have achieved in the last several decades.
Defenders of programs such as this should wake up and realize that gender equality has arrived and it’s time to move on. The line about women earning 70% of what men make is a crock. Within identical job capacities women earn the same - anything otherwise is illegal. The 70% figure is a reflection of the simple fact that more women work part-time and leave the work force sooner. Many feminists get nauseous at the notion, but hundreds of thousands of women prefer to be with their children and only want occasional or part-time work.
When I started teaching criminal justice, traditionally a male dominated program, a typical class would consist of a 3:1 ratio of boys to girls. Today those numbers are reversed and then some. Women dominate in virtually every area of academia. They have better GPA’s than guys and they’re more likely to graduate and get a job in their preferred area. In other words - they kick butt. And they owe none of their success to Status of Women programs that continue to portray women as victims.
But many are still of a mind that women (and visible minorities) are helpless and need state funded offices, grants, programs and cuddly support systems to be successful. Stephane Dion is so convinced that women are incapable of securing constituency nominations that he says he’s prepared to appoint as many as it takes to ensure a full third of candidates in the next election are female. Apparently the nomination process can get nasty and Dion doesn’t think women have the desire or what it takes to survive when things get down and dirty.
Hey, if women can be cops and soldiers I’m sure they can handle a nomination meeting.
Just as Chinese and Indo-Canadians have mobilized to dominate and control numerous riding associations (without anyone’s help), women are fully capable of taking on a larger role in politics. They have the numbers and resources to do so all on their own and they can play hardball with the best of them.
And they certainly don’t need Stephane Dion, or his condescending pity.
John Martin is a Criminologist at the University College of the Fraser Valley and can be contacted at John.Martin@ucfv.ca