National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women – December 6, 2010
I am a chemical engineer, and within my group of peers, there were 5 women (40 men and 5 women). Interestingly enough, 4 of the 5 women (and yours truly) were always at the top of the class when it came to grades. I’ve always believed in women equality (my Mom is an academic, also a PhD and a very strong woman). In my brain, I can’t really fathom how someone could, in 1989, open fire at Montreal Polytechnique and kill 14 women. Just because they were women and because they wanted to be engineers. It just boggles my mind. Some of my best female friends are chemical engineers. I learned to love chemical engineering because of my Separation Processes professor. So, for me, women can be just as good engineers as men.
From the Status of Women Canada website:
December 6 is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada. Established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada, this day marks the anniversary of the murders in 1989 of 14 young women at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal. They died because they were women.
I was pleased to see a number of elements and events at UBC memorializing and paying tribute to the young women whose lives were cut short by a senseless act of violence. It made me very proud of being a faculty member here. I hope this tragic event never, ever repeats itself.
Related posts:
- Remembering the Montréal École Polytechnique massacre
- Lest We Forget: Remembrance Day in Vancouver 2010
- Empowering women in traditionally-male-dominated professions: Interurban bus drivers
- International Women Day is March 8th
- Fourth Annual Women in Film Festival
Thank you for writing about this – how could we forget that day but I almost did had it not been for reading your post yesterday.