QUID NOVI

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<strong>QUID</strong> <strong>NOVI</strong>as primary provider in additionto all the other roles shehas already been forced toaccept?This exact issue arose in arecent Refugee and ImmigrationLaw class, in relationto our discussion of the liveincaregiver provisions of theIRPA. One of the things thatcame out of this class is that,while the above questionsstrike at the fundamentalfunctioning of Canadian societyas a whole, these issuesreach their logical extreme inthe field of law. The law firmworld is structured aroundstrict understandings of genderroles. As a lawyer, yourdedication to the firm is absoluteand you are expectedto put in 12, 14, 15-hourdays without question.What, in the past, has allowedthis model to function?The fact that said lawyer(male) could rely on his partner(female) to take care ofpesky details like food provision,cleaning and child rearing.Such tasks are still,either explicitly or implicitly,labeled “women’s work”, andwhen a man undertakes toperform such roles it is understoodto be the exception.But what will happen whensaid lawyer, as well as a majorityof her peers, is female?Will the expectations be thesame? Judging by a recentcover of one of those horriblelaw rags that litter the basementof the NCDH (presentpublication excluded, ofcourse) which featured the‘Top 50 lawyers under 50’ orsomething like that, thereare still a lot of white malefaces out there with a vestedinterest in exactly this structure.But again, puttingaside the vested interests(and recognizing impossibilityof that) where and howcan change begin?Audrey Macklin, in an articleentitled “On the Inside LookingIn: Foreign DomesticWorkers in Canada,” suggeststhe following:“A just solution to thedilemma of career and familywould involve, at a minimum,equally distributing responsibilityfor child rearing acrossthe sexes, whether withinthe nuclear family or throughsome other 4 arrangement.It would also meantransfiguring the workplaceand its priorities away fromits anachronistic model of themale breadwinner with thestay-at-home housewife. Finally,it would require thestate to assume a greater responsibilityin making childcareavailable and affordableto all women and in payingthose who do it a decentwage.”While I strongly support theabove suggestions, I cannothelp but feel that somethingis missing from this formula(and I don’t think the authorwould disagree). I thinkabout my mother, how mybrothers and I have treatedher, what we expected andexpect from her, and aboutthe slow, continuing processof exorcising my inner patriarch.Beyond the suggestions ofthe above quote, and in factbehind them, is a requirementthat each of us confronthow we re-enforce andre-inscribe, in our daily interactions,the gender roles thatwe have, to a greater orlesser extent, internalized.This act of subversion is, forthose who were brought uplike me, difficult, complicated,and bound to bemarked by failures along theway. The only reason I havemade any progress at all isdue to the patience, strengthand understanding of a fewamazing people in my life.While very challenging, thistask is, for those raised as Iwas, probably the most importantthing we can do forthe women in our lives.Even if taking on this obligationcannot set-right thetimes that I deeply hurt mymother, perhaps it will ensurethat I do not do so anylonger. And for all the incrediblewomen in my life,it’s the least I can do.Law Blurboverheard by Olga Puigdemont Sola (Law II)Friday before winter break, McGill Faculty of Law basement, two inquisitive law minds at work conjecture on thenotion of judicial authority upon the illustrious occasion of US Supreme Court Judge Scalia’s speech that afternoonfor the Charter at 25 conference....A) Did you know that he [Scalia] is very right wing, right?B) Yeah, I was really worried about going because I was scared that I would vomit during the presentation... (vomitingsound)A) You should go...it is important to hear these people speaking.B) Yeah...that is what Student C said, but I told him I would only go if I could whisper jokes in his ear during the speech.A) aoooaooaoaooaoa.....B) No, no, seriously, I am not judging him...[LONG PAUSE]... I mean, that’s clearly his job.4
6 MARS 20075
Page 1 and 2: QUID NOVIMcGill University, Faculty
Page 3: But she’s a woman. Shewears skirt
Page 7 and 8: Lessons on How to Make SmallTalkby
Page 9 and 10: in the “jardin a l’envers” as
Page 11 and 12: MARCH 6, 200611
Page 13 and 14: Women in the Law: A Precarious Life
Page 15 and 16: « vrai mâle », du genre qu’onn

QUID NOVI

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