Political {parity} is so VERY PERSONAL (and partisan)!
PARITY in politics.
That’s the goal: to get as many women in the seats as men. To make parity a non-issue and just the way it is supposed to be. 50% of the population = 50% of the representation.
Last night in our city, a wonderful organization had an event to encourage more women to run for our municipal election in 2021. Disclaimer: I did not attend this event. I currently have no intentions of running for public office (seriously - a deep dive into any of my SM feeds and you will see why), but I am a staunch supporter and champion of the women who do intend to run. I’ve worked in the background on campaigns before and I will again.
The keynote speaker at the event last night was Leela Aheer. She is the Minister of Culture, Mulitculturalism and the Status of Women for the Alberta UCP Government. A government that on the regular, for the past eight months they’ve been in office has continued to make life more difficult for women in our province.
Here are just a few examples of what the current Government of Alberta has done that primarily impacts women in this province:
Discontinuation of the $25 a day childcare pilot program.
Cutting AISH and Income Support payments and also changing the date that these are delivered. Did you know that most people who require income support are single parents, the majority of whom are women?
Cuts and lays offs to nursing jobs - again, primarily women.
And just this week, deciding what medical procedures are “of limited clinical value”and targeting tubal ligations and breast reductions in particular.
It is not a great time to be a woman of limited means in this province.
Quite a few of my friends were at the above event and I was happy to see them there. It gives me hope for the future when strong women stand up for what they believe in and make the moves to do the hard things. And then I saw one particular quote from Minister Aheer’s speech was being tweeted over and over.
“Parity isn’t Partisan”
HA!
I mean. Okay, I get the thought behind this statement, we want those running to have parity, the representation to have parity, but also - ummmm, WHAT?
Maybe in municipal elections there exists a certain luxury of being non-partisan and running on your own merits and values, but PUL-EASE, UCP Minister for the Status of Women, who has been noticeably silent on the many issues facing Alberta women with the policies and legislation being brought forward by YOUR government…. DO NOT FEED US THAT LINE OF BULLSHIT.
Parity is ABSOLUTELY partisan if you are nothing but a mouthpiece for the patriarchy and can’t even see the writing on the wall in front of you. Parity is partisan when you constantly look the other way when your government is actively and negatively impacting the lives and livelihoods of women who are your constituents and whom you claim to represent.
My fellow WOMEN, we can not be the TOKEN feminists of the patriarchy. We can not claim we want parity in politics and then continue to support the policies that keep women “in their place”. We can’t demand parity, get the spot on the team and then play by the rules of the old boys club. We have to change those rules. And doing so will ruffle some pretty established feathers. PARTISAN feathers.
The truth is, it is going to take some very multi-partisan legislation to actually get parity quotas on our constitutional books and blast open the doors for more women in politics. The case for forced quotas is made in this article from 2018 about political gender parity In Quebec… (I’m particularly tickled by the tweet they quoted)
“The insistence that we let things naturally progress prompted a viewer to tweet, “No one is against merit. But believing that gender parity is just going to happen in politics, is tantamount to believing that oil companies will self-regulate for the environment’s protection.” Touché!
That tweet, however, is the truth right there. Women are sitting here patiently waiting for the rules to change so they, too, can also equally play by them, when the rules were initially put in place by men. It’s not going to happen because the game was rigged from the get-go. Despite progress, the old boy’s club is alive and well and continues to benefit men in many unseen ways. Those pretending to protect the merit of the current status quo are making the grave mistake of assuming that those currently in power only got there because of their competence. What if privilege and connections and systemic sexism had a little to do with it too? Parity laws aren’t there to reward or promote incompetent women, they are there to ensure that competent women aren’t pushed aside because the old boy’s network has made sure they won’t be allowed to get in. Gender parity in politics won’t facilitate mediocrity; it will protect against it. ”
I truly believe that gender parity in politics is essential to our future and I hope that I live long enough to see it in my lifetime. I also believe that until we are willing to dismantle the system that currently exists and have the political and PERSONAL will to elect people who will do that from the inside, we are going to keep hearing from these ‘mouthpieces of the patriarchy’ and continue to see the issues that face women be the targets of “conservatism”.
I’ll leave you with some words from my fellow Twitter politico and also ask that in the future, when we ask for (DEMAND) parity in politics, we also ask for some HONESTY as well.
Go forth and run for office my friends - I’ll work on your campaigns with you! And remember… the personal is political (and yes, partisan in our current day and age).
XOXO,
N~