While feminism has been around in one way or another for decades, it has recently come to the forefront of social consciousness, especially since the rise of the #MeToo movement on social media in 2017. While it is great that feminism has gained traction in mainstream media and is forcing people to have a conversation about its importance, the popular brand of feminism that is white, middle class, cisgendered and able-bodied, aka white feminism, does more harm than good for the entire movement. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, feminism is “the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes.” While it seems easy to boil it down to equality between men and women on paper, the reality is that it just isn’t that black and white. Women of colour, gay women, trans women and differently abled women all face drastically different hurdles and challenges in their fight for equality. Intersectionality seeks to include all women into the conversation, not just those who...
According to Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” However, with the rising cost of education all throughout Canada, who exactly can afford to obtain post-secondary education? Is cost limiting the number of people who go on to get a Certificate, Diploma or Degree? How much does university cost anyway? The University of British Columbia has a helpful estimator of what your first year at university would cost. A Bachelor of Arts program for a Canadian student living in a shared room at the Vancouver campus would be $23,081 for their first year of university. The program is 4 years long, so their total cost of going to university would amount to a whopping $92,324. The total cost of attending university is $34,248 in course fees alone. That is why so many students resort to working part-time while going to school - just so that they can afford a place to live and food to eat. So why does going to university cost so much? ...