THUNDER BAY – Shawna Brown says fighting for equal rights for women is like climbing a mountain.
The battle takes two steps up the hill, slides back a step, but eventually they’ll get to the top.
Brown was one of several dozen women who took part in Thursday’s Solidarity March in celebration of International Women’s Day, participants marching through the downtown north core dressed in pink pussy hats and brandishing signs decrying the ongoing need in 2018 to still be fighting for things like equal pay and reproductive rights.
“What we try to do through these walks, marches and recognizing women is try to remind everyone that we are still climbing on the mountain, but we’re not on the bottom anymore,” Brown said. “We’re still going. We still have to look up, but we’re going.”
Brown said it wouldn’t take much to make meaningful change, but there has to be a willingness from senior levels of government to make it happen, especially on the career front.
That’s where women face some of their toughest hurdles, she said.
“Usually in the household the woman is the one who decides to start her career later in life because of child rearing. If through the government that was supported more, women could still have that opportunity to go out and do their career and still have child-care paid for,” Brown said.
Organizer Sandra Snider said it’s frightening watching events unfold around the world and what appears to be efforts on the part of some lawmakers to take women’s rights away, fighting regulations calling for equal pay and attempts to reverse abortion regulations.
“We thought we made so much progress, but every day there’s something where they want to take things away from women,” Snider said, standing outside St. Paul's United Church, where the march began.
“Even the Conservative Party in the province of Ontario, they’re talking about restricting women’s rights to choose.”
Snider said the theme for Thursday’s march was press for progress.
Like Brown, she’s convinced permanent change is coming, just frustrated it’s taken so long.
“We have so much more progress to do,” Snider said. “We have to have progress on child care. We have to have progress on your right to choose. We have to have progress on your right to say now. The progress right now on harassment at work is not acceptable.
“There’s so many places where we still need progress.”
The issue of murdered and missing Indgenous women and girls is just one area the city is failing in, she said.
On a more optimistic note, she said MeToo movement is helping change the conversation.
“It’s reminding everybody that it’s still happening and that even though you didn’t feel safe to speak out before, that it’s a safe place to do so now,” Snider said.
Coun. Shelby Ch’ng, one of three women serving on Thunder Bay city council, said she’s hopeful change will come this fall at the ballot box and more women will be elected at the municipal level.
She used the march as a chance to speak to potential candidates and encourage them to run.
Change won’t happen on its own, she said.
“I think it’s a good reminder that we need to be connected and show solidarity with other females. We’re so under-represented in positions of power and leadership in Thunder Bay and I think this is a good opportunity to remind people opportunities are coming up in October and I hope to see a lot of women on the ballot.”
