Equality and equity

By Daniela

This text has been a long time coming, because it is so emotional for me... and at times I felt like everything had been said already. And then RBG passed away and I realizes how much work there is left. Let me start by telling you a little story to make my point:

As you know, back in April our second baby was born, a beautiful and healthy little girl. Both my husband and I couldn't have been happier, because we don't take the fact that a child is born healthy for granted. While I was still in my happy-new-mama-bubble, neighbours started asking my father-in-law and my husband about the new baby. When they heard that we had another girl, the reactions were mostly along the lines of "oh okay", but some people went as far as telling the men in our family "too bad", "there's  nothing you can do about it" or "well, it could be worse". And when I heard that I became angry and I still am! How dare anyone put down my daughters, just because they happen to  be girls?!?! ( And to be clear, that is not my interpretation, but was actually clarified as being the reason for these comments). And what hurts the most is, these comments mostly came from women. 

So, despite the best efforts of leaders and fighters such as RBG, women are still keeping other women down. And it gets worse when we add other factors such as the colour of one's skin, religion or disability into the mix. I know that it won't make a huge difference for me to write this and hope that like-minded people will go "She's right". But it helps me to make my position clear. Even though I shouldn't have to because it is written into our constitution and every human rights declaration there is: We are all equal! And I will not stand for anything else. If you think I am too angry, too loud, too tough on people, then maybe you're not angry, loud or tough enough.