For centuries, women have fought tremendously for equal rights and treatment as men. However, even today, after having various legal documents in place, women continue to struggle living their lives as their counterparts. Furthermore, women face extreme hatred from some men on virtue of their gender. To support these arguments, this essay will first provide background history on women’s rights in Canada by discussing the three waves of feminism and the Persons case. Second, this paper will explain the international treaty of Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was seen as a huge victory for women around the world. Third, this paper will examine the crucial concepts of masculinity and misogyny which can be interpreted as fuel for the hatred certain men may have towards women. Fourth, this essay will look at the cases of the École Polytechnique massacre (“Montreal Massacre”) and the Toronto van attack by relating it to anti-feminist views. Lastly, I will explore the actions being taken by the White Ribbon Campaign to bring an end to violence against women on a global scale. Therefore, it will be my intention to demonstrate the failure of these well-meaning Human Rights initiatives for women in Canada.
If one is asked, “When were women not granted some, if not all, human rights?”, one would be inclined to answer by referring to historical time periods, most likely hundreds and thousands of years ago. The unfortunate truth is that even less than a century ago, in developed countries like Canada, women were not recognized as humans altogether. This led to the initiation of the three waves of feminism. The first wave refers to the movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which mainly centered around women’s suffrage – the rights to vote, safe working conditions and education (Krolokke, 2005). A prominent case from this era is the Persons case. In 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that since the definition of the word, “persons,” under the British North America Act (BNA Act) did not include women, they were not eligible to be admitted into Canadian senate (“Persons Case,” 2019). This exclusion of women from the BNA Act is a clear example of the uncertainty of who the “human” is in legalities concerning Human Rights. In 1929, five women from the province of Alberta named Emily Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby, Nellie Mooney McClung, Louise Crummy, and Henrietta Muir Edwards (collectively known as the “Famous Five”) brought forward a petition to challenge this definition’s constitutionality (“Persons Case,” 2019). The Famous Five ultimately appealed the case to the highest court in Canada at the time, the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom. This case was monumental because it expanded beyond the issue of the Canadian Senate, becoming a landmark precedent for almost all cases that would arise in the future regarding the rights of women. The Court ruled in favour of the Famous Five and overturned the previous decision made by the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa. The second wave in the late 1960s to the early 1980s focused on the inequality of laws, inequality of cultures and the role of women in society (Krolokke, 2005). Lastly, the third wave, from the 1990s to present time, is informed by a post-colonial contemporary mindset and addresses embracing individualism and diversity. Altogether, these waves of feminism emphasize the imperfectness that existed in established Human Rights acts and contributed to inequalities directed towards women.
The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) came into effect on September 3rd, 1981 as a United Nations international treaty (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1981). The participating member states agreed to take all measures in order to respect, protect and fulfill a list of women’s rights. Due to this, the CEDAW is often referred to as the “women’s bill of rights.” To date, 187 countries from the United Nations have signed and ratified the treaty. Unfortunately, the CEDAW proved to be unsuccessful in preventing unprovoked attacks against females by male perpetrators in the later years. A key case exemplifying this is the École Polytechnique massacre that occurred in Montreal, Quebec on December 6th, 1989 (Mackenzie, 2013). Marc Lepine stormed into the Engineering University, affiliated with the Universite de Montreal, and murdered 14 young women before committing suicide. Officials and authorities would later make gruesome discoveries behind Lepine’s actions. Witnesses revealed that when Lepine entered the classroom, he ordered all men to go to one side of the room and women to the other. Lepine’s isolation of women was an integral part of his horrific plan. In addition, at Lepine’s residence, a list was found which he had prepared of other women’s names, many well-known in the province of Quebec, whom he had also planned to kill. Lepine’s hate crime left behind a profound and painful human tragedy and sent shockwaves throughout the nation. Therefore, the CEDAW treaty, which outlines that “state parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights to men in the field of education and in particular to ensure” has not been upheld in its perfect sense as demonstrated by the Montreal massacre (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1981).
The Toronto van attack in April 2018 is another recent case of the failure to eliminate discrimination towards women, as anticipated the CEDAW treaty (Dalton, 2018). Alek Minassian drove on the sidewalk of Yonge Street with a rental van killing 10 innocent pedestrians and injuring 14. On closer inspection, it was later revealed that the majority of the victims of the incident were women. In their investigation, authorities also found that Minassian was an active user on an online blog that widely and openly promoted an anti-feminist culture. As a result, despite the establishment of the CEDAW, women in the current times are still the subject of extreme violence and sexism by male perpetrators. Therefore, the goal for which the CEDAW was drafted, has yet to be achieved 38 years after its establishment.
From the moment one is born, one is socialized according to their assigned gender (“Boys Don’t Cry”, 2019). Subconsciously, humans are in pursuit of what they believe to be the “correct” journey of their gender. For example, men are rewarded for showcasing their physical strength, dominance, athleticism and for their sexual prowess. Women, on the other hand, are encouraged to be obedient, express vulnerability, seek help when needed and be guarded about their sexuality. A recent study conducted in the United States revealed that 47% of boys, aged 14 to 19 years, heard a male family member make sexual jokes or comments towards women at home (“The State of Gender Equality for U.S. Adolescents,” 2018). Interestingly, these boys were also more likely to feel pressured to embrace these sexist remarks themselves. It was concluded that these stereotypical gender norms encouraging children to act in certain ways can themselves lead to a self-propagating viscous cycle promoting further gender inequality. It can be argued that this cycle promotes misogyny, which is the “dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women” (Chapman, 2014). Therefore, gender expectations beginning in early childhood can result in misogyny, which may be a contributing factor for violence against women by men who naturally believe they are acting in their assigned biological roles.
The Global Civil Society (GCS) promotes healthy practices of human rights where violations are occurring in hopes of bringing an end to human rights violations (Goodhart, 2016). GCS actors can be ordinary civilians protesting human rights violations or larger-scale organizations and movements with the same purpose of preventing these infarctions from occurring in their societies. GCS actors try to lessen the disparities between rights agreed upon in treaties and real-life practices by creating awareness of the violations through protests and petitions. It is this awareness that ultimately changes people’s mindsets and their actions towards the violations in question. Similar to the GCS, the White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) was founded in London, Ontario in response to the mentioned École Polytechnique massacre (Antoniak, 1991). The WRC is the world’s largest movement spearheaded by males working to end violence against women, promoting gender equality, healthy relationships and a new vision of masculinity. Consequently, there is great hope that the relatively newer initiatives such as GCS and WRC will close the gaps created by previous well-intended human rights initiatives to better serve women in Canada.
In today’ society, women not only have to still fight for equal rights and equal treatment to men, but also be scared for their safety. Overall, this paper examined the history of rights of women in Canada as a foundation to the CEDAW. It was then argued that although the principles behind the CEDAW treaty were ideal in theory, it is still not successful in its true form. Cases of the Montreal massacre and the Toronto van attack were discussed to support this argument. Going forward, there remains sincere hope by way of the efforts of newer initiatives, including the GCS and the WRC, will soon represent and support women in a more perfect sense.
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