Battle for women's rights far from over

We've come a long way - but there's a long way to go. On Oct. 18, 1929, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards and Irene Parlby won their case in front of the British Privy Council to have women considered "persons."

It was a large part of the nation's suffragette movement.

Now, of course, women can vote. Women can hold office at national, provincial and municipal levels.

And yet, much has not changed.

We have yet to see a woman elected to the highest office in this nation - though Kim Campbell's assumption of the crumbling remains of Brian Mulroney's realm did give Canada its lone female prime minister. On the provincial scale, we have had few females as premiers - and none sit now.

On the municipal level, there is not a woman among the nine elected officials that have held office the last three years.

In politics, where equal representation for all is supposed to be a key priority for the democratic system, politics is still a mostly male domain.

There is a saying in far too many fields that a woman has to be notably better than a man just to be noticed at all. Even if so, males invariably earn more than women for the same work. A majority of those living in poverty are women, often women with children. Most victims of domestic violence are women. It's hardly a surprise that a male-dominated government has yet to place value on preventing domestic abuse, aiding child care and ensuring wage equity.

A recent Statistics Canada study, for instance, found that not only do women earn less than their male counterparts, mothers earn less than childless women in the workforce - up to 30 per cent less for mothers in their 40s who had interrupted their careers for family.

These numbers tell women they can't have it all - they do have to make a choice between their career and their family.

Women, today, matter more than they did eight decades ago - but not by much. It's been 80 years after these women - the Famous Five - won their decision, yet the battle, it seems, wages on.