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I’ll grant that the point of this change is not necessarily to improve the lives of contemporary Canadian women, but rather, to recognize the accomplishments of women in Canada’s past. Indeed, it’s a symbolic gesture; the government’s way of making a point, in the same way that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “because it’s 2015” quip about gender parity in his cabinet was his way of winking to feminists as if to say, “I’m on your side.” Changing the lyrics to Canada’s national anthem to make it more gender neutral, as proposed by Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger, is another: for most of us, it will only matter when we try to sing along at sporting events.

Symbols are good: they tell us where our government stands on the issues on which we can expect to see action in the future. But symbols can’t help women find daycare for their kids, or money to pay for it, or help them pursue their career ambitions. And sometimes, they can have the opposite effect: by incessantly talking about the disadvantages women face for being women, we can fall into a trap of seeing them as the sum of a gender, not as individuals.

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The Trudeau government has, so far, offered a decent selection of feminist feel-goodery: gender parity in cabinet, a leader who proudly calls himself a feminist, the promise of women on banknotes and perhaps even an improved, gender-neutral national anthem. (It has also launched an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, though since more men go missing and murdered in aboriginal communities than women, this is less a “women’s issue” than it is a crisis plaguing all First Nations.) These are all fine gestures, but they’re emblematic of a type of “easy feminism” that looks good on a partisan checklist, but doesn’t actually do a whole lot to improve the lives of women. That might be worth considering during the hours we’ll soon eat up squabbling about whether Agnes Macphail’s white privilege disqualifies her from a spot on the $100 bill.

National Post

Robyn Urback • rurback@nationalpost.com | robynurback