Statistics Canada released a study early last month that highlighted the strength of the feminist movement. In 2006, for every 100 women with a university education there were 84 men with the same level of education. Compared to 1981, when there was 157 men with equal education to 100 women. That's remarkable!
It is a step forward from the patriarchy that has dominated society for so very long. I refer to analogy from about a year ago; I likened patriarchy to a bus. The men are at the front driving the bus, with women in the middle, and children in the back. Visually, this is not a great way to run society. However, sticking with the bus analogy, feminism is women commandeering the bus, and putting the men to the back, with the children in the middle.
Why do I say this? Well, men are twice as likely to be murdered. In every category of type of murder: stabbings, beatings, and shootings. Where is the outcry for men's shelters and supports?
I have volunteered at a homeless shelter. About 90 per cent of the visitors to the homeless shelter are males, and same to soup kitchens. There are very few supports for men. We are not including men as being part of the solution.
Now, I am not at all an advocate for patriarchy, far from it. I do however, applaud the effort of the feminists for the tremendous job they have done, yet, they still are not the answer either. Their view is one sided, and their goal is one gendered, just as boxed in as patriarchy. So many theories have been proposed over the years for new paradigms, new shifts in social theory. Many of them are guilty of the same thing, looking through a distorted lens, which forgets certain people, and is not holistic in its approach.
The Natives of our land had it right all along. They had a circular system. Imagine a group of children sitting in a circle, both male and female, facing the centre. The women are next in the circle, resting one hand on the children, and the other on each other. Next are the men, one hand supporting the women, the other supporting each other. After them are the elders, both male and female, supporting the circle, again with hands resting on each other and the groups in front of them. It is a circle of support, not taking any one angle. It is holistic.
This is where the human ecological model, or sometimes called the social ecological model plays a role. It is a system that understands how many aspects play a role in how a person acts. The individual is at the centre, with their microsystem, consisting of family, close peers, and other individuals they have daily contact with play a role. Outside the microsystem is the exosystem where the community, schools, health workers, and media are. After the exosystem, is the macrosystem, which is everything outside of the two inner rings, such as politics, economics, societies beliefs, and cultural beliefs. All systems interacting with one another, influencing the choices the individual makes.
It's when we realize that everyone is part of a massive social network, and that we are inter-tangled in it, that we will begin to realize everyone is entitled to services and support, that one group is not superior than the other, nor is one lesser. We need to stop looking through lenses that distort, and stop thinking that only one group is to blame, and one group is the hero. We are all part of the solution. We need to think, and act as such.
