I had occasion recently to read a brief account of the famous Persons Case of 1929: the constitutional review involving a small group of women who appealed to the highest judicial authorities of the day to establish that the term 'qualified persons' included women, paving the way for women to serve in the Senate of Canada. Reflecting on this landmark decision on this International Women's Day serves as a timely reminder that the movement for women's rights has always been at the leading edge of change, social and legal.
It's also a powerful reminder that the cause of gender equality is not a story of straightforward progress, nor is the work finished. While it's true that the women's rights movement and the fight for gender equality helped to spark a global human rights revolution, the path to gender equality has been long and winding. We've witnessed watershed moments like the Persons Case and many revolutionary steps forward on that path. But we've also encountered fierce resistance and many stops along the way, even some steps backward.
Think about it. It wasn't so long ago that women were routinely and systematically excluded from most professions, and denied access to jobs that were seen as too dangerous and unsuitable – quintessential men's work. It wasn't so long ago that employment discrimination and pay inequity enjoyed the powerful consensus of political forces, societal attitudes, and even judicial rationalization. Consider the ruling of an Ontario High Court judge from 1968 dismissing a policewoman's demands for equal pay. The judge reasoned that the difference in pay couldn't possibly be discrimination since "the fact of difference is in accord with every rule of economics, civilization, family life, and common sense."
Common sense, indeed.
The unsettling thing is that 1968 wasn't that long ago in the grand scheme of things. Moreover, change has come slowly, incrementally, imperfectly.
And the work remains unfinished.
Imagining a world free of bias and discrimination begins with acknowledging the extent to which bias and discrimination persist, obscured, and sanitized by the veneer of formal performative measures of gender equality.
In truth, powerful social attitudes, practices, and biases sustain and rationalize systemic gender discrimination and inequality. The voices of the past call out to us today to make the cause of gender equality the spearhead of meaningful social change once again; to bring the vision of a gender-equal world one step closer to realization and, in doing so, to imagine a world truly free of bias and discrimination.
The theme of 2022 International Women's Day is #BreakTheBias. This theme challenges us to ask some unsettling questions about the state of gender equality in our world. This includes, of course, the practice of law in all its varied expressions. Our next blog is written by one of our articling students, Courtney Sinclair, who shares how she had to break the bias in her own mindset as she determines what area of law she will practice in.
