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These boots are made for walking

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Last week I attended my first Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board meeting. Covering the SCRD is part of my beat here at Coast Reporter. Like wearing in a pair of leather boots, squeezing into protracted debates and wading through political manoeuvring cause discomfort. Beware boot wearer, blisters are unavoidable.

But that discomfort is an expected part of this rookie’s job. What was less expected, however, was the unease that came from staring for hours at a wall of male directors. Now, let me be straight, I have no qualms with the demographic. But the board’s homogeneity raised the question of what gender equity in politics looks like locally. Because on first blush it appears absent. Of the six Sechelt councillors, two are women. Gibsons has one woman on a council of four. The exceptions to the rule are the shíshálh Nation council, which has achieved gender parity, and School District No. 46, where six out of eight board members are women.

The lack of estrogen shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Sunshine Coast belongs to planet Earth, after all, which skews impressively male, politically. As of 2017, almost 80 per cent of the world’s national parliamentarians are men, according to the United Nations.

Those stats may not cure the blisters, but lo, boots are walking.

This time last year, what’s come to be known as the 2017 Women’s March became the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, with upwards of 500,000 people at the Washington event, and five million marchers across the globe.

Those on the Coast had a chance to participate thanks to the organizing efforts of Leah Collison, a U.S. transplant and stay-at-home mother of two boys. She and Grace Hann brought the march to Roberts Creek, and they will be doing so again this Saturday, in solidarity with marchers worldwide.

Collison is a self-described introvert, but she said the U.S. election brought her to a place where she had to “stand up and say this is bullshit.”

In 2017, a lot of women have done the same. From the #MeToo movement to the recent CanLit shakeup, women who never considered themselves activists have picked up the mic. And while civil disobedience can change institutions, institutions can also change from within.

This is an election year for local government. Women voters and aspiring women politicians may want to heed the advice of a local introvert: “It is so important for women to get into politics. Even to just join the school board. Get involved somewhere and get your voice heard.”