Professor Shaheen Shariff offers Expert Quote for International Women's Day 2023
March 8 is International Women's Day. Each year, people from around the world come together to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
Professor Shaheen Shariff, James McGill Professor and Project Director of iMPACTS, is one of a select few experts who was invited by McGill University to provide a statement about International Women's Day. Here is Professor Shariff's expert quote:
"Canadian women are graduating from university programs in record numbers and hold leadership positions in academia, science and medicine, law and government, arts, media and private industry. Nonetheless, women’s equality disturbingly regressed since IWD 2022 at global levels. Patriarchal regimes limited or continued to block women’s access to education, employment, choice of dress, religion, and social life, subjecting many to lives of poverty and isolation. Rape proliferated as a weapon of war, and intimate partner and gender-based violence (physical, mental and technology-facilitated) jeopardized the health, economic security, and safety of women and children. Many American women lost their rights to abortion as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. These regressions make it incumbent on our universities, schools, governments, and communities to spearhead partnerships that facilitate access to education, employment, and childcare for marginalized women because education, employment, and/or a productive career is every woman’s inherent right. Universities must reclaim their role as universal educators of society, to inform and enlighten all stakeholders, including government, to work towards unearthing, critically challenging, and removing deeply embedded, intersectional forms of misogyny, patriarchy, androcentricity, and discrimination. Overlooking these barriers tacitly and ultimately supports autocracy and insular societies, undermines democracy, and diminishes opportunities for progress in a modern world where, ironically in 2023, women and children continue to pay the heaviest price."
Click this link to read more expert quotes from members of the McGill community. Click this link to learn more about International Women's Day 2023.
