An associate professor and coordinator of women's and gender studies at a local university here in Calgary is decrying the plight of women in this city.
First of all, call me unenlightened, but I have never understood why universities even have "women and gender studies" faculties at universities, or why we need "gender diversity" or "policy alternative" or "gender economy" faculties either, but OK let's see what she says. Writing in 'The Calgary Herald' the other day, Prof. "X" says that, "28 percent of First Nations women, 23 percent of single mothers and 15 percent of visible minority women in Calgary live in poverty." Here's a bulletin: Don't have kids if you are poor and single! You'll only be poorer!
A few years ago, B and I were at a dinner and the female speaker's topic was "child poverty". I had to be gently physically restrained from jumping up and making a comment about single, teenaged mothers being one of the chief reasons for child poverty. The crowd, mostly university "woke" types, would not have stood for it, so I reluctantly shut up. Every year I heartily thank my birth mother for having had the good sense to give me up for adoption; otherwise I would have been reared in poverty like the cohort of kids this "gender-brilliant" prof was talking about.
Prof. X went on at length about a lot of things that are obvious to me, albeit anecdotally I admit, but she wrapped it up by calling on Mayor Gondek to "implement a feminist, anti-racist response and plan that includes policies that acknowledge unpaid work (i.e., hello, being a mother!), expanded access to child care, a plan to lobby the province to support a guaranteed basic income and a commitment to systemically (I hate that concept) incorporate inter-sectional, gender-based (here we go again) analysis across all municipal policy-making moving forward (another popular, but completely unnecessary, phrase du jour).
Meanwhile, Calgary's trees and roads are falling apart! Nero fiddles while Rome burns, but I predict our rabidly "feminist" and "woke" mayor will go for it with gusto! But wait, Prof. X isn't done yet. She also wants Gondek and councillors to form the city's first "gender-equity action committee akin to and work in collaboration (how's that for sh-tty grammar?!) with the new anti-racism committee, whose goal since it was formed in October 2020 has been to oversee the development of a community-based anti-racism strategy." Boy, there's so much "anti-this-and-anti-that" it's hard to keep track of where this would take us and what wonders it would produce!
What these women don't seem to realize is that my cohort invented feminism in the late sixties. We went to the barricades so women like Prof. X could fool around and get degrees in "gender" nonsense. All we wanted was a few weeks of maternity leave and equal pay for equal work, the latter of which has yet to materialize, by the way. We didn't want to spend our hard-earned educational dollars at university navel-gazing and gnashing our teeth in despair. We wanted to party and study (maybe not quite in that order) and then get the same jobs and opportunities men had.
Prof. X also revealed that a number of critical groups are in on this, namely "The Women's Centre, Vibrant Communities Calgary, Basic Income Calgary and Fair Fares Calgary". Who knew these august bodies even existed!? And if so, how many women are making big money running them?! But wait, if there's still so much to do on this dismal file, what have they been doing!? She finally concludes with this doozy:
"We need the city to step up in a big way. A feminist, anti-racist plan, in combination with the creation of a gender-equity action committee and the appointment of Calgary's first special adviser to the mayor on the status of women, (trust me, our worthy mayor will insist she can easily advise herself on this file, thank you very much) gender and sexualities (there's a new one!) is a guaranteed way to move the needle on poverty in our city."
No, it isn't and it certainly won't guarantee less poverty in this city. That's a delusional objective. Just for fun, I googled Prof. X and whaddaya know! She looks about 40-ish and has a PhD in Women's Studies (what else!) from the University of Maryland and a BA in Theatre from Rhode Island College. Her age may have something to do with her attitude, but that "theatre" degree really nails it.
All-in-all, her credentials tell you everything you need to know about why she thinks the way she does. Whew, glad I didn't stick around for my PhD!
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