Feminists still needed in today’s society

By Karoline Kemp

Editor, the Gauntlet,


Re: "Women’s centre not necessary," Oct. 9, 2003,


The campaign for the women’s centre is predicated on many facts–none of which include a need to "keep up appearances." While the posters around the university may say "most other Canadian universities offer a women’s centre–why don’t we?" they are meant merely to make people start thinking about their environment, and to allow people to begin questioning what type of services our university does and doesn’t provide.


Simply because the President of the Students’ Union is a woman and because over 50 per cent of students are female does not in any way indicate that equality exists on our campus. Nor does it mean the climate on campus for women is as it should be.


Services a women’s centre would provide potentially include peer counselling, referral services, resources, discussion groups and workshops. The centre would provide a safe space for women to gather and share their experiences, network and build a community that is open and run by a collective group of women (including students, staff and faculty).


Patriarchy has not disappeared from Canadian society. The reason people may believe this is because sexism has become so entrenched in our culture we are not able to recognize it. It has become normalized so it is not even questioned. To do so would make one seem outside of the norm. Today’s feminists do not obsess over "petty details," instead they fight the structures that oppress all.


Without feminists, women would not have been able to vote or work, but feminists are still needed–not to provide women’s shelters, as Jankovic believes, but to completely stop not just the physical and emotional domination of women, but oppression in all spheres.