Breaking the Glass Ceiling
Like Never Before
When I was in school,
the only time a woman has ever been my favorite teacher was in grade three. Until
I took the Special Care Counseling Program (SCC), which I have recently
graduated from two years ago, I had three additional women as my favorite teachers
before the end of the curriculum.
Without overanalyzing it,
through the SCC lessons, I became cognizant about the importance of equitable representation
at high level positions.
The primary reason that
made me very satisfied with the result was because although I acknowledged that equality
was like chasing a unicorn, we as a society ought to stand for equity.
As a society, we were
thought to be the best and win, win, win… while the cost of our futile success usually
occurred at the expense of others. Life has not been fair and most people have
figured that the hard way or another.
Yet, when we looked at the Osani Circle Game
(the children in Africa) for inspiration, life could have taken a different turn.
Imagine for a minute that if life was a race and that the goal was to make sure
that we all get to the finish line rather than just to win the race.
The best example of
this that came to mind was when the Jamaican Bobsleigh team men crossed the
finish line. Society needs to have a paradigm shift by exchanging the mindset
of wining at all cost with crossing the finish line TOGETHER.
Most people who have a
harder time grasping this concept are unaware like I was about the need to
alter the toxic and harmful message I was receiving regarding to ignore the
oppression of different groups of people. Through the video below, I figured out
why my brain was unable to register. Thus, I will let you enjoy this enlightening awareness learning
tool.
One of the other reasons
why I was very satisfied with these results was because we got to see the acceptance of a
different perspective. For instance, even if avocados were my favorite, once in a while it would have been very good to go through the spectrum of plants and add different type of fruits.
Despite institutional
discriminatory practices, in the end, it was we the people who have the power
to make a change as we saw fit. I hope that the message was loud in clear;
people wanted to give other competent people equitable opportunities.
Additionally, it was very
satisfying to know that the parents of little girls could benefit from this
historical event as a model to spark their dreams. Throughout history, it has
only taken one to create that change that people needed to see. Furthermore, this instance has raised the game
to a level where the person who aspires to fill this position to bring their A
game and not ever take the position for granted.
Another reason why my
level of satisfaction was met was because individuals, who have been marginalized,
even if it was briefly, really understood and were more attuned to the needs of
people in a different way that a person who came from a privilege position has
yet to be emotionally displayed.
As an illustration, a person of privilege, like Denis Coderre,
focused on creating more roads for people who own cars while a person who has
understood marginalization was thinking about improving the metro system which
affects more people (the pink line makes me see life in pink).
Several people were
crying. When justice prevailed over oppression, it was inevitable for people to
be anything less than being very emotive.
It has been a long time coming for
that ceiling to be broken in such fashion during the municipal elections with Doreen
Assaad, it was the first time since 30 years for a woman to lead this party in
the city of Brossard. And ultimately, two women blazed new trails for young
girls to aspire to: Valérie Plante became the first women to be named mayor in Montréal
and Josée Néro has been the first woman mayor of Saguenay.
Variety is the spice of
life and without women and other minorities, life would be plain. So now the
question that I want to leave you with is,
—What kind of race do
you want to be part of?
_________
Works Cited
Champagne, S. (2017, November 5). La mathématicienne DoreenAssaad
devient mairesse de Brossard. La Presse. Retrieved November 6 2017 from http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/201711/06/01-5142489-la-mathematicienne-doreen-assaad-devient-mairesse-de-brossard.php
Fragasso-Marquis, V. (2017, November 5). Élections municipales:plusieurs surprises et deux femmes
pionnières. La
Presse Canadienne. Retrieved November 6 2017 from https://lactualite.com/actualites/2017/11/06/elections-municipales-les-des-sont-jetes-les-electeurs-commencent-a-voter/
Gundappa, S.
(2013, April 02). “How can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”
Inspiration, life, Love, Meditation, motivation. Retrieved November 10 2017 from
https://sureshg.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/how-can-one-of-us-be-happy-if-all-the-other-ones-are-sad/
Shingler, B.
(2017, November 5). ValériePlante elected mayor of Montreal, beating out Denis
Coderre. CBC News. Retrieved November 6 2017 from
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-montreal-denis-coderre-valerie-plante-1.4388700
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