Have we really come a long way, baby?

If there's indeed such importance attached to the women's movement and women's status in Canada then why did the Harper government shut down most of its Status of Women offices (SWC) last year? The Tory decision to slash the Status of Women's operating budget by $5M and close 12 of its 16 regional offices was justified by the government as "administrative efficiency" and the contention that the organization only represented and funded feminists and did not adequately represent women.

Forgive our ignorance, but since when is being a feminist at odds with being a woman? How is equal pay, equal opportunities and equal representation not a goal shared by all women? To suggest, as Harper has by closing these offices, that the fight for equality is over is ludicrous and does disservice to those who need the support the most.

A popular adage states: "The most serious threat to democracy is the notion that it has already been achieved". Replace the word "democracy" with "equality" and you'll see the danger in this type of thinking.

So much has already been achieved and so much progress has already been made (particularly in the social and economic circles of the people making these decisions) that, we suspect, policy-makers are sometimes not capable of seeing how much still needs to be done.

Too many Canadians overestimate the success of the women's movement because their perceptions are usually distorted by constant media coverage of successful and strong women. For every Hillary Clinton and Michaelle Jean, there are thousands of anonymous women and minimum wage workers toiling away. What about the women we don't see? What about the single moms on welfare, the battered and abused women with nowhere to go, the women out of options and out of luck? Who speaks for them?

Up to 50% of women worldwide continue to experience domestic violence during marriage. Two-thirds of the world's 1 billion illiterate adults are women and 80% of all refugees globally are women and children.

Things might be better here in Canada, but they're far from perfect. Just because there's an equality clause in the constitution does not make women and men equal. They're just words unless we act on them. Ten years after the Pay Equity Act was passed, women still earn 11% less than men.

As long as only 21% of our Parliament is comprised of female MPs, as long as women comprise 84% of spousal homicides and the vast majority of people living under the poverty line and as long as we're still having debates over abortion rights, the fight for equality is not over and a political watchdog and a public research and advocacy group is still needed. We may have come a long way, but let's not lose sight of the long way still to go.