International Women's Day: The struggle never ends

It's International Women's Day, but as usual there's really nothing to celebrate. Yes, we've made a great deal of strides (at least in the Occidental World) towards recognizing at least the legal equality of the sexes and to ensure women have the same kinds of opportunities. We're not quite there yet but we're much further than we were, say, even two decades ago.

Yet we must never forget there there are still attitudinal problems in society. Ethnic groups that refuse to recognize the supremacy of law and subjugate their female members under the police radar; through forced arranged marriages, repeated marital rapes, female circumcision and so forth. Employers who ask prospective employees (both females and males) about their families (it's illegal to do so but it does happen). And yes, there's "the lineup." I mean architects who don't appreciate females don't "go" the same way as men and make the restrooms the same size when for practical reasons the women's facilities should have double and even triple the number of stalls.

And let's not forget, there are still many countries where femicide is rampant. I'm not just talking about baby girls being murdered in the fields in Mainland China. I'm also talking about people in India running ultrasound clinics for the sole purpose of helping parents decide whether or not to abort their fetuses on the sole basis of sex. (This unfortunately happens a lot in our part of the world too, and no matter where one may stand on reproductive issues there should be a consensus that abortions for this reason should be outlawed.) I'm talking about countries and break-away republics where women are forbidden to go to school or even fly a kite. I also speak of the genocide of Aboriginal women in Canada, both on and off reserve. Have we forgotten about Helen Betty Osborne?

And of course, we must not forget the plight of sex trade workers. It's too easy to view them as less than human -- in fact, countries like Venezuela only see them as 20% of a human being; in other words if you're convicted of a sex crime against a pimp or street walker you get an 80% discount on your sentence. All the women who have disappeared from Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Hamilton ... why won't the police do their jobs? Especially the female members of the police.

The struggle for women's rights must never end. While I oppose some of the excesses of radical feminism (the "men are pigs" camp), the freedom of males are tied to the freedom of females. We're partners in this world. We may not be able to live with each other, but we sure as heck can't live without each other either.

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