Women

International Women's Day has come and gone. Lots of articles were written about this and that ....and this and that.... and this and that.... and this and that. Mostly about how women are hard done by. In first-world countries, no less. Please. Happily, a few more enlightened columnists wrote about the myriad of choices Canadian women enjoy. We can:
1. Have a career,
2. Have a career and a family,
3. Have children with no father,
4. Have children with no father and be supported by the state,
5. Whimsically deny a father access,
6. All of the above.

Canadian men, on the other hand, can:
1. Have a career,
2. Not birth children,
3. Not have children without the mother around,
4. Have a grim time with access,
5. Have their salaries garnisheed,
6. All of the above.

In Canada women are very privileged because we have a cornucopia of choice. While the biological realities of reproduction pose impediments to careers, the gift of having children far outweighs the few years we may miss (by choice) in the workplace. Nonetheless having children remains the most important contribution many of us make. As women, we are given this huge gift. And as if that weren't enough, some of us are also given other gifts.

Yesterday I remembered three women who changed my life:
1. Miss Anderson, my grade eight English teacher who taught me everthing I love about writing, grammar and the bliss of great literature;
2. Miss Bishop, my grade eleven English teacher who hurled chalk with deadly accuracy in an attempt to teach me to write essays and love great writers; and
3. Miss Portugal, my pitiless boss at Maclean-Hunter who mercilessly edited my copy, thereby teaching me to write.

These three unsung women changed not only my life, but that of countless others who arbitrarily crossed their paths.

Opening the local paper yesterday morning, these heroines came to mind, but in vivid contrast to what I was reading. The hype was all about International Women's Day and the star-studded luncheon that heralded it. Attended by the pm's wife, this MP and that, this minister and that and numerous famous female celebrities, the gathering was reported not in the news pages, not in the financial section, but in the women's social section. Yes, of course, why not. No matter what women have achieved, we are still featured in the women's section. There they were, all dressed up and no where to go.

Yes, female ghettos remain alive and festering.