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EXCERPTS
It's hard not to agree with critics who insist that conservative
governments today appoint women who have little intention of truly
working on behalf of women's equality.
Be they provincial or federal governments, women who take on the
"women's" cabinets more often than not end up toeing the boys' line to
keep the status quo and, often worse, supporting anti-women policies.
Helena Guergis, the current federal minister in charge of the Status of Women, is yet another example of all of the above.
Most recently, Prime Minister Stephen Harper supported the
notion of changing the Canadian anthem to something that truly includes
more than 50 per cent of the population - and then he turtled. Did the
woman in charge of women's equality in Canada, say, "Excuse me, I think
it's a good idea, let's not flip flop." No, she backed her man and
dropped the idea. And did she fight to reinstate Canada's fledgling
national child-care program - scrapped by the Conservatives when they
came to power in 2006. No, not a whimper from her.
But what is worse is that, according to a study by a Queen's
University professor, women are getting the short end of the stick
where it really hurts - the pocketbook. According to Kathleen Lahey's
analysis, women have only received about seven to 22 per cent of
federal infrastructure spending - mostly because they are
under-represented in the construction, manufacturing and engineering
industries.
But Guergis recently visited the United Nations boasting about all the progress made by women in Canada.
The reality is that this government has a lot of gall to try and
take credit for moving either women's rights or women's economic
equality forward.
...
-reprinted from the Burnaby Now