Last Sunday I sat in church like I have many times before.  It was “Mother’s Day”, a North American holiday one which typically will fill any Protestant church.  It would seem Mother’s Day brings out the guys who want to do something good for their mom.  I’ve seen it a million times.  Next Mother’s Day 2007, the church will be full.

That’s ok, what do I know.  I don’t judge anybody.  If it makes you feel good, you might make Mom feel good too.  Typically Christian ministers chime in with their “Mother’s Day” sermon.  With Mom having to try twice as hard as Dad in our society surely Mom could use a few prayers.

It is what it is.  That is the role of women in our society.  Sometimes “Mother’s Day” brings that to the fore.  The increasing role of women in our Canadian economy since WWII has changed our world forever.  Still, its harder for women that men.  I don’t think men think about juggling family, kids and career half as much as women.

In my other career as an agricultural economist/evangelist I often get asked to speak.  When the Conservatives won the January 23rd election I was asked whom I thought would be the next minister of agriculture.  My standard answer was I didn’t know who she would be but if it were up to me she would come from Quebec.  In the male dominated winter farm meetings eyes were aghast.

In the end it didn’t happen.  Stephen Harper picked B.C. MP Chuck Strahl.  I wanted a woman because I feel women make tremendous politicians.  It’s my view that women listen more than men.  They are more interested in consensus building than making testosterone-induced decisions based on ego.  Unfortunately the latter sometimes befalls us males.

There are examples of this everywhere.  How about politicians like Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia, Angela Merkel in Germany and Portia Simpson-Miller in Jamaica.  New Zealand has many examples like their Prime Minister Helen Clark, attorney general Margaret Wilson, and chief justice Sian Elias.  Of course we can’t forget our local representatives like former MP Rose-Marie Ur, Maria VanBommell and Mayor Diane Gagner.  These women are making valuable contributions to political life and their greater economies.

So it got me to thinking.  I work for four different companies other than my own.  Two of my editors are female and younger than me.  Am I part of the reason some of my female colleagues have to work so much harder?  Do I really know what I’m talking about when I imply a bit of gender discrimination within our greater economic and political economy?  Who am I to say?

In that vein let me share a couple of quotes with you.  The first is from Shirley Chisholm, a famous black American woman who ran for President several times.  The second is from Madonna, one of the most famous female singing artists in the world.

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, “It’s a girl.”  ~Shirley Chisholm

“I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want.  If that makes me a bitch, okay”.  ~Madonna Ciccone

OK, I’ve never lived any of that.  When I was born, somebody said “it’s a boy” and that was that.  I suppose the people in the neighbourhood thought I’d grow up and maybe be a farmer.  If I had been a girl those same people may have thought something else.  I may still be captive to that same thinking.

Some folks might have thought of me today or at one time as tough, ambitious and knowing where I was heading.  That made me heady and at a stretch even smart.  However, like Madonna says it makes her and by implication any other female a bitch.  What’s up with that?

I won’t even go there.  Some of the most interesting conversations I’ve had about this issue are with women over the age of 70. They faced some real challenges as women.  Some of their opinions especially about the abortion issues might surprise you.  Their sisters in 2006 owe much to the trail they blazed.

In the last federal election 308 women ran and 64 were elected.  Women such as Rona Ambrose and Dianne Finley were named to cabinet as Environment and Human Resources ministers.  They follow a long line of women who fought the hard way to make contribution to our greater political economy.  They like many women are held to a higher standard.  It’s like that all around the world.  Maybe someday our greater society will come to grips with that.