With this series, the editorial team goes back to the sources of a Quebec model that is struggling in the hope of rekindling its first sparks, those that allowed our nation to distinguish itself from others. Today: the feminist struggle.
There are some battles whose heroines will never fully complete. The long, steep road to women’s equality was cleared by these pioneers, determined and just rebellious enough, who took turns passing on the torch they had courageously carried. Decades of constant, because perpetual, feminist struggle. “You don’t overthrow 8,000 years of male domination in 100 years of feminist struggles,” Janette Bertrand noted last year. However, this tireless feminist alone inspired countless others to bring down many aspects of this hold.
Because by freeing her own words in the pages of newspapers, on television or on the radio, by addressing the taboos of her time which were still inequalities, violence against women, sexuality or homosexuality, Janette Bertrand came to free, each in turn, generations of fellow citizens who were also exasperated by the stifling constraints of the patriarchal legacy and religion.
While she was leading this revolution on the cultural and social scene, in the streets, groups of women were gathering to also demand their full and complete equality. Solidarity would be the foundation of their battles and, above all, the key to their victories.
From the Bread and Roses march, which saw 800 marchers converge on Quebec City to denounce women’s poverty, came the promise of a separate law on pay equity, adopted in 1996 by Louise Harel and Premier Lucien Bouchard. The requirement for equal pay for equal work forced a necessary catch-up. However, it remains too slow, with the average pay gap having narrowed from 15.8% in 1997 to 8.8% last year. At this rate, it will take another 25 years to achieve real equity…
The Lucien Bouchard government, this time with his minister Pauline Marois, also gave birth to the most generous parental insurance program in Canada. After years of negotiations with Ottawa aimed at repatriating this jurisdiction, the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) came into force in 2006, immediately greeted by a record increase in births in Quebec in 100 years. As well as an increase in the membership of fathers and second parents, which benefited hundreds of women and their young families — 72% of them took advantage of paternity benefits in 2019, compared to 56% when the QPIP was created, and 26.5% of parents who were able to share parental leave that same year, compared to 19.7% in 2006.
Quebec women, for their part, supported by a bouquet of progressive measures to support families, the centerpiece of which was the creation of a network of early childhood centers, are today more numerous on the labor market than their Canadian counterparts. Their activity rate, for those aged 20 to 44, is 84%, compared to nearly 80% at the Canadian level.
In the background of these advances, an all-female fraternity helped convince the colleagues of the National Assembly to unanimously adopt both pay equity and the parental insurance plan. This is the concrete effect of parity, which some still persist in judging only as symbolic: the highlighting of persistent inequalities, the proposal of corrective measures and the perseverance to convince essential political allies.
In the shadow of this structural progress, however, there are hidden too slow advances in the domestic mental load or the parity of women in the upper echelons of society. And above all, there are distressing setbacks.
The #MeToo movement’s awakening has been followed by a shocking backlash of online misogyny. Added to this is the anti-feminist #TradWife trend, which advocates for the housewife subordinate to her breadwinner husband, while a Kansas City Chiefs football player, Harrison Butker, urges young girls (at a graduation microphone, no less) to live their “vocation” as wives and mothers rather than believe the “diabolical lies” that promise them a fulfilling career. All this, in 2024.
Closer to home, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, young high school students are being investigated by the Sûreté du Québec for sharing sexual images of non-consenting minors. And the violence is not just psychological. Femicides and spousal murders are occurring one after the other. Accusations of sexual assault are increasing in junior hockey circles in Quebec. The boys’ education is far from complete.
Former Prime Minister Pauline Marois delivered an essential reminder on the occasion of the 20the anniversary of its family policy. “In this endless march that aims to allow each and every one of us to reach our full potential and our dreams, there is no such thing as standing still. We either move forward or we move backward.” These words are just as true for the entire feminist struggle. Despite the giant steps taken by our builders, the battle continues.