On December 6th, 1989, a male student walked into Polytechnique Montreal with a gun. He ordered the women into a separate area from the men. He yelled, “You are all feminists” and killed 14 of the young women before turning the gun on himself. Why would he do this? Because these women were studying mechanical engineering – a trade that is traditionally male dominated. Today we ensure the lives of these 14 women remain meaningful by calling to attention to violence against women.
Gender-Based Violence Against Women
This particular incident fueled an entire generation of women (my generation) to create a call of action against gender-based violence. Violence against women can be sexual, physical, mental, and/or economic harm. When we think of harmful acts directed at someone based on their gender, we often think of places other than Canada or the United States. We immediately think of child brides, or “honour crimes.” We think it doesn’t happen here…but it does. Every single day.
Violence against women happens everywhere. It happens in families, in politics, in communities, in faith-based groups, media, work, schools, and online forums. It happens in every country and in every age group. Today is a call of action to recognize that violence against women has happened in the past, and it continues to happen today.
Why Does Violence Against Women Happen?
Women have historically been considered second class citizens, at least in the larger community and legally. I had an interesting conversation with my mother about this today. She was telling me stories about the strong women who helped raise her. She told me that her grandfathers would never have considered making a decision without talking it over with their wives first. They would have lived in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. That is amazing, and makes it very clear why I am who I am, but it was not always the norm. It’s still not always the norm.
We teach our children from an early age that there are certain gender roles you are expected to live. There are beauty pageants where little girls dress up with frills and make up. On top of that, we teach them to swing their hips and wink at the judges. We teach little boys that it is not okay to cry. You need to be rough and tough. And if two little boys get into a physical fight, we shrug and say, “Boys will be boys.”
How Gender Roles Play a Part
A friend of mine told me a story recently about a girl who was being bullied at a fast food restaurant because she didn’t dress the same as other girls. The boys made fun of her, yelled at her, and called her a freak. It seems like anyone who is considered different is a target. And this is where we need to start action.
Of course, there are important organizations that offer help with the very serious topics of domestic violence and trafficking. There is a lot of work to be done there, and thank goodness there are amazing people who do that work! There are laws against sexual harassment in the work place, and there are anti-bullying policies at schools. But, this doesn’t seem to be filtering down into the larger community. This is where we all need to take part in the action.
Fighting Violence Against Women with Kindness
Each and every one of us can play a part in making sure our girls grow up to be strong, independent women with high self-esteem. We can ensure our boys grow up to respect girls and women as individuals. And, we start that by teaching our children to stand up against injustices.
Teenagers are chomping at the bit to fight injustice – it just takes them learning about someone that isn’t fair to get them passionate about it. Those boys should never have gotten that far with the girl they were bullying. Everyone in that fast food restaurant should have gathered around her and protected her. She – like everyone else – deserves to be treated with respect.
A Final Thought
So, every once in a while, I talk about a topic that I am passionate about that doesn’t really have to do with keto. This is one of them. When I was in university, a mother of one of the 14 women who were killed in Montreal came and talked about them. She had a slide with a picture of each of the women and talked about their hopes and their dreams. I swore at that moment that I would always recognize December 6th (#EndViolence) and I would do what I could to raise awareness.
Those women died because of a man who was anti-feminist. Each of us can do more to ensure they are remembered and their stories are used as inspiration to make violence against women a thing of the past.
Wendy
