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Opinion: Inclusive does mean 'all of us'

"All thy sons" to "all of us." Small, common words hardly worth thinking about. But they are worth thinking about

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“When I was a student at Cambridge I remember an anthropology professor holding up a picture of a bone with 28 incisions carved in it. ‘This is often considered to be man’s first attempt at a calendar’ she explained. She paused as we dutifully wrote this down. ‘My question to you is this – what man needs to mark 28 days? I would suggest to you that this is woman’s first attempt at a calendar.’ It was a moment that changed my life. In that second I stopped to question almost everything I had been taught about the past. How often had I overlooked women’s contributions?”

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Sandi Toksvig, British-Danish writer, actor, comedian, and political activist who established the Women’s Equality Party in the U.K.

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Federal MP Mauril Bélanger has introduced a private member’s bill to change two words in our national anthem. His version would go from the original, “O Canada, our home and native land/True patriot love/In all thy sons command,” to “In all of us command.”

“All thy sons” to “all of us.” Small, common words hardly worth thinking about. But they are worth thinking about.

Opponents of the bill complain about politic correctness run amok: The intent is clearly inclusive, they say. But proponents say it’s about time.

Word choice might seem innocuous, but it represents an attitude so entrenched that even someone like me, who keeps an eye out for gender imbalance, can get caught.

The Gazette runs a “quote of the day” on page A2. The quote often is tied to a news item and it is most often by a man.

I can guarantee this is not overt sexism on the part of the Gazette, because I am one of the editors who finds the quotes, chosen from the wide open Internet. It took me a while to notice the skewed ratio of male to female quotes that are easily available. Typically, it’s five to one.

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I put out a call to the women in my life for names of our gender who have something to say. They responded generously. Here are the people and some of the quotes they provided, a wide representation, from poets, scientists and politicians, to athletes, philosophers and comics. Many of the names were unfamiliar to me, but I will get to know them.

They are small gestures, perhaps, to change two words, to look for quotes from women.

But women need to be included, overtly, and they need to be heard.

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Madeleine Albright

American politician and diplomat. She is the first woman to have become the United States Secretary of State.

Isabel Allende

Chilean-American writer

Gloria Anzaldúa, died 2004

American author, cultural theorist, and feminist philosopher

Maya Angelou “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist

Louise Arbour

Canadian judge and lawyer who became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2004

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Margaret Atwood

Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist

Jane Austen, died 1817

English novelist

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Hildegard of Bingen, died 1179

also known as Saint Hildegard and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath

Roberta Bondar

Canada’s first female Canada astronaut and the first neurologist in space

Ruby Bridges Don’t follow the path. Go where there is no path and start a trail.”

American activist known for being the first black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960

Charlotte Brontë, died 1855

English novelist and poet

Mary Chapin Carpenter

American singer, songwriter and musician

Rachel Carson, died 1964

American marine biologist and conservationist

Majora Carter

American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host

Shirley Chisholm, died 2005

American politician, educator, and author

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Margaret Cho 

American comedian, actress, fashion designer, author, and singer-songwriter

Pema Chodron

American Buddhist teacher, author, nun

Hillary Clinton

American politician; candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election

Kimberlé Crenshaw

American civil rights advocate, scholar of critical race theory, professor

Marie Curie, died 1934. “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”

Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist

Emily Dickinson, died 1886. “A WORD is dead/ When it is said, / Some say. / I say it just/ Begins to live That day.”

American poet

Mary Mapes Dodge, died 1905

American children’s writer and editor

Regina Dugan “The only way to learn to fly is to fly” (TED talk on learning to fly at MACH 20 and the need to experiment)

American businesswoman, inventor, and technology developer

Amelia Earhart, disappeared 1937

American aviation pioneer and author

Queen Elizabeth II

Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Head of the Commonwealth

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Nora Ephron, died 2012. “A successful parent is one who raises a child who grows up and is able to pay for his or her own psychoanalysis.”

American journalist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, director, and blogger

Tina Fey

American actress, comedian, writer, and producer

Valerie Plame

Former United States CIA operations officer and author

Rosalind Franklin, died 1958

English chemist and X-ray crystallographer

Barbara Frum, died 1992

Canadian radio and television journalist

Melinda Gates

American businesswoman and philanthropist

Elizabeth Gilbert

American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer and novelist

Jane Goodall

British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

South African senior research professor in trauma, memory and forgiveness at the University of the Free State in South Africa

Temple Grandin “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.”

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American professor of animal science at Colorado State University, autism spokesperson and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behaviour

Zaha Hadid, died 2016

Iraqi-born British architect

Katharine Hayhoe 

Canadian-born atmospheric scientist, professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is director of the Climate Science Center

Grace Murray Hopper, died 1992

American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral

Cheri Huber

American meditation teacher, author

Arianna Huffington

Greek American co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post

Shirley Ann Jackson

American physicist, president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Jane Lubchenco

American environmental scientist and marine ecologist

Michaëlle Jean

Canadian social activist, journalist, documentary filmmaker, former governor general and secretary general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

Frida Kahlo, died 1954

Mexican painter

Mindy Kaling

American actress, comedian, and writer

Emily Kimbrough, died 1989. “Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.”

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American author and journalist

Billie Jean King

American former World No. 1 professional tennis player

Barbara Kingsolver

American novelist, essayist and poet

Naomi Klein  “What if it’s all a hoax and we’ve created a better world for nothing?” (on climate change)

Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker

Antjie Krog

South African poet, academic, and writer

Anne Lamott “A hundred years from now? all new people.”

American novelist and non-fiction writer, political activist

Louise Leakey

Kenyan paleontologist and anthropologist

Ursula le Guin “Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.”

American author of novels, children’s books, short stories, poetry and essays

Annie Lennox

Scottish singer, songwriter, political activist and philanthropist

Doris Lessing, died 2013

British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer

Ada Lovelace, died 1852

English mathematician and writer

Jane Lubchenco

American environmental scientist and marine ecologist

Mary Oliver

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American poet

Elizabeth May

American-Canadian politician. May is leader of the Green Party of Canada

Marissa Mayer

American business executive and computer scientist

Hazel McCallion

Canadian politician and businesswoman

Barbara McClintock, died 1992

American scientist and cytogeneticist

Nellie McClung, died 1951

Canadian feminist, politician, author, and social activist

Dambisa Moyo

Zambian-born economist and author

Michelle Obama

American lawyer and writer, First Lady of the United States

Ngozi okonjo-Iweala Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Nigerian economist

Oprah

American media proprietor, talk show host, philanthropist

Emmeline Pankhurst, died 1928

British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote

Dorothy Parker, died 1967. “Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship.”

American poet, short story writer, critic, and satirist

Rosa Parks

African American civil rights activist

Dolly Parton“If your actions create a legacy that inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.”

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American singer-songwriter, actress, author, businesswoman, and humanitarian

Samantha Power

Irish-American academic, author and diplomat

Anna Quindlen

American author, journalist, and opinion columnist

Bonnie Raitt

American blues singer, songwriter and slide guitar player

Kathleen Raine, died 2003

British poet, critic and scholar

Shonda Rhimes

American television producer and writer

Ann Richards, died 2006

American politician

Mary Roberts Rinehart, died 1958. “I hate with a murderous hatred those men who, having lived their youth, would send into war other youth, not lived, unfulfilled, to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.”

American novelist

Eleanor Roosevelt, died 1962. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart” and 

“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will work to prevent misery rather than avenge it?”

American politician, diplomat, and activist

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, died 2004. “People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.”

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Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies

J. K. Rowling

British novelist, screenwriter and film producer

Arundhati Roy

Indian novelist, activist, environmentalist

Sheryl Sandberg

American technology executive, activist, and author

Mary Ann Shadd, died 1893. “I was not put here to prove I’m better than you. Rather, trust I can be the best me given any circumstance.”

American-Canadian anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher and lawyer

Rebecca Solnit“The stars we are given; the constellations, we make.”

American writer, historian, and activist

Gloria Steinem

American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist

Kim Thúy

Vietnamese-born Canadian writer

Lily Tomlin “Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.”

American actress, comedian, writer, singer and producer

Sandi Toksvig“When I was a student at Cambridge I remember an anthropology professor holding up a picture of a bone with 28 incisions carved in it. ‘This is often considered to be man’s first attempt at a calendar’ she explained. She paused as we dutifully wrote this down. ‘My question to you is this – what man needs to mark 28 days? I would suggest to you that this is woman’s first attempt at a calendar.’ It was a moment that changed my life. In that second I stopped to question almost everything I had been taught about the past. How often had I overlooked women’s contributions?”

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British-Danish writer, actor, comedian, and political activist who established the Women’s Equality Party in the U.K.

Sojourner Truth, died 1883

African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist

Harriet Tubman, died 1913. “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

American abolitionist, humanitarian, and spy

Helen Vendler

American literary critic

Mary Wollstonecraft, died 1797

English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights

Virginia Woolf, died 1941. “You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”

English writer and one of the foremost modernists

Marion Woodman “A flower won’t open if I yell at it and say ‘bloom!’ “

Canadian author, women’s movement figure, Jungian analyst

Malala Yousafzai

Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate

pcrowe@postmedia.com

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