I retain from my feminist readings of the last few days that the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) defends a vision based on the patriarchal family, preferably white, that it is distinguished by its contempt for low wage earners, care work and whose “feminist” action only serves women already occupying places of power.
Progressive and feminist, I wondered how I had not noticed and denounced this drift myself? Making a change mainly requires two ingredients: becoming aware of what is wrong, in order to break away from it, and describing how another route is possible, in order to make it happen. So I imagined what a pro-women government elected in 2018 would have done.
Simone de Beauvoir taught us that there was no women’s liberation without economic independence. My dream government would therefore have acted forcefully to increase the incomes of the predominantly female employment categories more significantly than elsewhere, particularly in care. Beneficiary attendants, where there are many employees from visible minorities, would have obtained increases of 23%.
We would have concluded with the nurses an agreement recognized as “historic” by their union by raising the evening and night premiums by up to 18%, extending their medical responsibilities and offering them to self-manage their schedules. During a pandemic, they would have been offered bonuses of $12,000 to $18,000. We would also wage war on private agencies, as demanded by the four main Quebec unions, now all, in this ideal world, led by women.
This dream government would not forget daycare educators, increasing their salaries by up to 18%. Above all, he would have turned his back on private daycare centers by favoring CPEs everywhere. At the elementary and secondary levels, where there is a majority of female teachers, he would have raised the starting salary by nearly 15% and would have mobilized school educators to lend them a hand. To conduct these openly biased negotiations in favor of women, this government would appoint a woman to the Treasury Board, yes, but known above all for not allowing herself to be intimidated by macho people.
Outside the framework of the State, he would have on his arrival canceled the increases in daycare rates of the Liberal patriarchal government and would have raised family allowances, at the bottom of the scale, by 17%. Caregivers — overwhelmingly women — would also benefit from doubled financial support. The previous absurd decision to no longer reimburse assisted reproduction would be reversed.
Knowing that among the poorest people, there are many women, he would have conducted an economic policy allowing in four years to 90,000 people to leave social assistance to enter the labor market, i.e. a quarter of recipients able to work. .
This government would deploy a colossal effort — say, half a billion — against the evils of feminicide, rape culture, and toxic masculinity. It would bring together a panel of the best women parliamentarians and apply its unanimous recommendations to better receive complaints, support complainants, and create a special court for domestic violence. He would have allocated 100% of the amount requested by the Federation of women’s shelters.
He would have launched an advertising campaign against violence against women, unheard of. He would have ensured that the Minister of Public Security – a male preserve – be a woman and appointed a female director of the Sûreté du Québec. It would introduce, to protect the victims, “anti-reconciliation bracelets” to prevent the accused from intimidating them.
The budgets for the fight against pimping and trafficking in women, reduced by the previous government, would be increased by 20 million per year. New squads would be created and an awareness campaign for teenage girls on social networks would go viral, accumulating (we can dream!) 14 million views.
This government would be very attentive to the patriarchal notions conveyed in education and in the State by misogynistic forces, in particular monotheistic religions. It would evacuate classes from classes that present religious symbols as innocuous and ensure that state employees in authority do not wear any signs of movements or religions that regard women as unequal, modest or submissive.
The person leading this party would impose that half of its candidates be female candidates, whatever its militants attached to patriarchal archaisms say. He would appoint a black unionist nurse for a crucial partial, a gigantic middle finger to supporters of the status quo. He would also appoint an Aboriginal minister, a first.
Dear readers, knowing that you are very bright, I know that you understood from the start that I was summarizing here the actions taken by the Legault government, of which I am generally extremely critical. The reality is that, except for the Couillard interlude, for half a century, our governments have been passing the baton to concretely improve the condition of women.
The CAQ figures prominently in this march of progress, especially since it was in no way predisposed to invest in it to such an extent. We can and must be even more demanding. But I don’t know what cause we are serving by declaring that there are setbacks when there is progress. By insulting those, deputies and ministers, who for five years have concretely rendered service to poor, underpaid and abused women. I applaud them and encourage them to do even better.
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