The new prime minister of Canada just showed the world how feminism is done
We were already big time fans of new Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, for being a vocal feminist.
“I’m proud to be a feminist,” he explained in an interview with the Toronto Star just days before he won his the election. “My mom raised me to be a feminist.[My father] was a different generation, but he raised me to respect and defend everyone’s rights, and I deeply grounded my own identity in that, and I’m proud to be a feminist.”
Now we are SUPER big-time fans of Trudeau, who was sworn into office today, and, in his first order of business, is practicing the feminism he’s been preaching throughout his campaign. As NBC News reports, Trudeau just announced his cabinet and 15 out of the 30 members of his cabinet will be women. Yes, true gender equality, go Canada!
As Jonathan Malloy an associate professor at Ottawa’s Carlton University noted to NBC News, with this edict, Canada “has jumped from about 20th to 3rd” in world rankings of governmental gender equality. That means a LOT of countries have some serious catching up to do, including the United States, where women only make up 25% of Washington’s cabinet.
And if you’re wondering which country is first on the gender-parity-list, that would be Finland, with 10 out of the country’s 16 ministers are women. Also note that according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Sweden and the Atlantic archipelago of Cape Verde both have 52.9% of these positions occupied by women.
“Canada has never really had a gender-parity moment before so it’s a big leap for us,” Malloy told NBC News. “Canadian politicians often talk about parity while running campaigns but it’s a big deal to actually do it.” When asked why he appointed a cabinet where half the members are women, Trudeau awesomely replied “Because it’s 2015.” *MIC DROP*
Related reading:
One more reason to love Canada’s new prime minister- he’s proud to be a feminist
[Images via Twitter]
