Justin Trudeau says he won't stop saying he's a feminist until it's 'met with a shrug'
Speaking at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it should come as no surprise that he is a feminist who believes in the "equality of men and women."
"For my generation and younger, it's all sort of a 'duh,'" he said. "The fact that it gets such a reaction from the powers and the authority structure that surrounds us really shows how much work we still have to do." The Liberal leader said that every time he talks about being a feminist, he's asked about it by the media, and the reaction online is over the top. "I am going to keep saying loud and clear that I am a feminist until it is met with a shrug," he said. "Why, every time I say I'm a feminist, does the Twitterverse explode?"
Gender equality should be a mainstream political position, the prime minister said, and he encouraged other countries to model their cabinets after Canada's, with an equal number of men and women. "Any world leaders who tell me, 'I'd love to, I just can't do that with the current configuration of our parliament or of my party,' I say: 'Well, what are you doing to change that configuration and draw out those extraordinary women who can be leaders that we need?'" Trudeau said.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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