I remember that my high school history book weighed what seemed to me a tonne. It kept me fit lugging it home and to class.
The other thing I remember was how few of its worn pages, less than a handful, were dedicated to literature on the Canadian women's movement's effort to get the vote. While Louis Riel's fight for the Métis took up a good month, what's her name, Dr. Emily Howard Stowe and her push to get women in the polling stations took up a couple of days.
Women make up 50.4 per cent of this country's population, while the Métis compose approximately 1.25 per cent. When I asked my teacher about this discrepancy, he said I could learn more if I took Women's Studies. Boom. That was it. Chapter closed, discussion closed. What else did I want to know? We had made it.
The thing is, we haven't. Last year's federal election shattered Canadian history, with 67 of the 308 members of the House of Common women - 21.7 per cent. And while women make 86 per cent of the purchasing decisions in North America, only 35 per cent of the women in the workforce have managerial positions.
But Wednesday (Feb. 15), as I watched the documentary Miss Representation, which explores the under-representation of women in positions of power, I started to think how lucky I was being born at the tail end of Generation X. I graduated three years before the explosion of reality TV and 10 years before television channels started replacing reporters with commentators - American conservative Glenn Beck was first screened in 2006.
While I still hold out hope that the social media will bridge gaps, the lack of understanding of the value of news and abundance of quick, sensational information bites is eating away at the strides we've made as a society. More and more studies indicate our attention spans are dropping - a recent study by Assisted Living Today noted we can hold our concentration for a mere five seconds. I worry that this trend will lead to further pigeonholing of people into stereotypes.
If we want to change the simplistic portrayal of a sex-charged female filling out her ultimate goal by snagging a man, we need to start taking responsibility. Turn off Jersey Shore in which the male stars help drunk girls who can't make it up the stairs into their beds. Demand real reporting, rather than individuals ranting until their faces go red. Stand up for publicly funded media - CBC is expecting to be hit with a 10 per cent cut in the federal budget. Or at very least recognize this corrosion.
My Scottie Pippen basketball jersey and time on the court during lunch break made me the target of ongoing ridicule in school. During my Grade 6 graduation ceremony this "Tomboy" stated that I, the shortest kid in class, wanted to be the first woman in the NBA.
Obviously reality set in, but in a way my ambition stayed the same. I want see women break into all kinds of arenas, whether they are political, community-based or industrial. And maybe one day I'll have the chance to slip a microphone in front of a newly elected female Prime Minister.
