Adrienne Clarkson's wishes for Canadian women

After escaping from Japanese-occupied Hong Kong during World War II, former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her family settled in Ottawa to start a new life. After studying both at home and abroad, enduring personal loss, and enjoying a successful career in broadcast journalism, she became one of Canada's most well-known citizens.

A year after completing her term as Canada's 26th Governor General, Clarkson shares her life story in Heart Matters: A Memoir (Viking Canada, 2006), and she spoke with Homemakers about the face of Canadian women in the 21st century.

Q: What is your view on the ability of women in this country to keep, and maintain, a presence in Canadian politics?
A: It's still a man's world in politics. It's the most male aspect of "the male world" because it's built around their psyches and their personalities. It's aggressive, competitive, "killer," and women aren't like that...women walk into that world fully expecting that they may be able to change it a little or they try to be one of the boys, and neither of those things work. We just don't have enough women to make a critical mass in politics.

Q: Do you think we just need more women [in politics]?
A: Yes, I do. We need pure volume of women. I'm always terribly happy when I talk to young women and they say, "We want to go into politics." There were very few young women in my time who said that. I think that if they do, and if there's a critical mass, it will make all the difference in the world.

Q: You write in your book: "The history of women has always been tragic when they allowed themselves to be used." Do you think that's still a barrier for feminism today? Are women still allowing themselves to be used?
A: Absolutely, and especially more and more with this whole thing of celebrity and of women getting ahead for being "idols" or whatever. It is absolutely horrifying, actually, because there will be young women or little girls looking at this [celebrity/"idol"], thinking, Well, this is what I have to do in order to get ahead. I think it creates a world in which women are not valued for themselves but because they fill a cardboard cut-out.

Q: After having the chance to meet and speak with so many Canadians during your time as Governor General, was there anything that you learned about Canadian women that makes them unique or strong? Is there anything that still holds us down?
A: I think that Canadian women have the benefit of living in a country in which 80 per cent of them have access to all the levers of being able to be with their children, have a good job, do things like that. The other 20 per cent are what worries me, and that is women who will never be able to get that. First of all, it's our aboriginal people: they don't have that access; they don't have that kind of ability to move ahead. It is getting better, but not as fast as it should be. But there are no formal barriers, and that's really important.

Click to continue to read what Adrienne Clarkson has to say about women's roles in Canada's future...

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Q: What do you see as the role of Canadian women in the 21st century?
A: I think women should lead the way now, in terms of trying to get better systems going for their own aspirations of life. When I say we live in a man's world -- if a woman wants to get ahead, she's got to spend, from the time she's in university, another 12 or 14 years establishing herself as a doctor, a lawyer, a university professor, a tax accountant, in order to get above a certain level. I think a lot of women want to be able to stay at home with their children at least for the first few years of their lives.

There are all sorts of things that tear women apart. They cannot behave just like men, and the other thing that worries me is that they cannot behave just like men because the biology is different. A doctor was telling me that everything has changed for women, but their biology has not changed; and women's bodies react best when they have children between the ages of 18 and about 28 -- and certainly we are putting that off. It's very difficult for women; we must never underestimate that. Yes, we've made a lot of progress, yes, women can seem to have it all, but it causes them a lot of sacrifice to their psyches and to their own selves -- and that's something that will have to be worked through.

Q: As Homemakers celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, what are your hopes and wishes for Canadian women in the next 40 years?

A: I would like to see a complete shift in the way in which we look at work; so that women who work can be accommodated to fulfil their needs to have children.

I'd like to see more things like job sharing, position sharing, and the ability of women to stay at home with their young children.

Right now I think the whole situation is made for men and women have very well accommodated themselves to it...but there's not a single woman I know, no matter how successful, that didn't wish they could be at home with their child until he/she goes to kindergarten.

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