Happy International Womens Day?
According to a recent United Nations report, women constitute half of the world's population, perform nearly two-thirds of its work hours, receive one-tenth of the world's income and own less than one-hundreth of the world's property.
Less than 2 in 10 of the world's elected officials are women. You make think those figures are coming from other "backwards" jurisdictions but they are in fact not that different from the backwards numbers we have here at home. In Canada and BC we dropped to just 20% of MPs in the last federal election and all the way down from a previous high of 28% to just 22.8% in the 2005 provincial election.
You can make a difference. Encourage a woman you know to run for office. Tell her about the Women's Campaign School November 16-18 in Vancouver, sponsor her seat at the school, volunteer your time on her campaign and get her elected. And to make sure other women can get elected too, read legendary feminist Doris Anderson's opinions on STV and join the KNOW STV campaign.
The last word to a Chilean proverb in honour of the election of their first ever woman president, Michelle Bachelet. "With a few women in politics, women change. With many women in politics, politics change."
