During both presentations, I attended during international women’s week I learned a lot. During the first presentation, I learned a lot about climate change and how it’s affecting the indigenous peoples of our land but especially how it is affecting the indigenous women. Indigenous lands are being exploited for resources by those who have no right to do so. Indigenous communities are fighting to protect there land as well as each other. These types of situations are leading to poverty and other terrible outcomes for the indigenous peoples however it is especially affecting women due to there low socio-economic power.
During the second lecture, I learned a lot about the terrible bill 21 and how it is affecting the female Muslim community. One of the presenters shared there story of being a Muslim teacher who wears a hijab and the constant threat of bill 21 threatening her every move. She talked about how it was her choice to wear a hijab and it’s not because she’s” stupid” its just her choice. We also covered how just because she wears a hijab she is professionally stuck and is unable to receive any sort of promotions because of her hijab.
Both of these lectures relate to what we’ve covered in class especially Kimmel’s view of gender as an institution. Kimmel talks about how we expect certain genders to bring certain attributes of there gender into otherwise gender-neutral institutions which I believe to be especially true in the case of female Muslim teachers. It is not fair to assume that a female who happens to be Muslim is teaching our kids that they will teach our kids Muslim values and be biased towards people of there own culture. Another theory that relates to International women’s week would be Kimmel’s idea of “Doing Gender”. Kimmel states that gender is less of a component of our identity and more of a product of our interactions. Inequality is taught. In the case of indigenous women, it is a consequence of how people of non-indigenous backgrounds view them
Lovers and Fighters | Section 22 