Michelle Paquette has a unique perspective on today's International Women's Day celebrations, as someone who has lived as both a woman and a man.
"We can't look back at the world and say everything's solved, everything's right, there's no injustice, there's no sexism, there's no legislated discrimination, there's no difference in incomes, there's no differential power between men and women in relationships. Those things are all real. International Women's Day is a way to acknowledge that," said the transgendered woman, who works as a bus driver in Winnipeg.
Laura Morton (left) and Colette MacPherson enjoy lunch at the legislative building before the ceremony to recognize International Women's Day.
Born a man, Paquette, 51, started transitioning about 25 years ago and now co-ordinates a group for transgendered Manitobans at the Rainbow Resource Centre. While she admits the day is a "symbolic" one, she said it's a chance to quietly reflect on gender dynamics -- and their contemporary relevance to the way we live our lives.
Discrimination persists in millions of ways, she said.
"It's a day of remembrance, it's a day of 'don't pretend it's over, don't pretend suffrage was all there was,' " she said.
According to the occasion's official website, IWD is the day "connecting all women around the world and inspiring them to achieve their full potential." The United Nations officially designated March 8 as International Women's Day in 1977, inspired by a 1911 fire that killed more than 140 female garment workers in a New York City factory and led to vastly improved labour legislation.
These socialist beginnings have borne capitalistic fruits.
For some savvy marketers eager to capitalize on fuzzy feelings emanating from global womanhood, there are IWD marketing campaigns designed for the date.
This year, profits from purchases from New York designer Diane von Furstenberg go to a non-profit organization devoted to increasing female leadership in developing countries.
Aminata Sillah, the head of the women's Multicultural Sewing Co-operative in Central Park, is planning a one-year anniversary for Winnipeg women graduating from her sewing courses today.
The 61-year-old refugee from Freetown, Sierra Leone, who came to Canada three years ago, has organized the event to mark the achievements of 25 students in her class, who come for lessons after immigrating to Canada from West and East Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
"Some of the women in this community, they don't go out. So bringing them out to sew, it helps them to meet with other people and interact with them and ask their problems," she said. "If they know how to sew, it can help them to fund themselves."
Sillah doesn't open her classes to men who've been asking to join. Some women from traditional households will not come to her classes if men are introduced to them.
"We have some women who cannot mix with men," she said. "If they come, they will leave."
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
