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‘I’m A Feminist’: Justin Trudeau Stands Up For Women At The United Nations

By Selina Leavitt
Published on: 14:14 PST, Mar 17, 2016

Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, attended the United Nation’s 60th session of the commission on the status of women. There, Trudeau spoke about feminism and why equality should be the obvious choice.

At the event, hosted by the executive director of United Nations Women (Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka), Justin Trudeau was confronted with wonder on why he was so comfortable labeling himself a feminist.

“It shouldn’t be something that creates a reaction. It simply is saying, I believe in the equality between men and women and I believe that we still have an awful lot of work to get there,” Prime Minister Trudeau stated, according to the Huffington Post. “That’s like saying the sky is blue and the grass is green.”

Prime Minister Trudeau went on to explain that it bothers him that the media and the “twitterverse” always react so strongly when he calls himself a feminist. According to him, the strong reaction is proof enough that the world has a lot of work to do before men and women will truly be considered equal.

“I’m going to keep saying loud and clearly that I am a feminist until it is met with a shrug,” Justin Trudeau said, as reported by CBC News. “It’s just really, really obvious that we should be standing up for women’s rights and trying to create more equal societies. Like, duh.”

“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,” Trudeau went on to say.

Justin Trudeau is the son of Margaret Trudeau and late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

When questioned about where his feminism comes from, the current Prime Minister credited his parents and the common sense of his generation.

According to The Guardian, the Prime Minister was clear that his mother, Margaret Trudeau, always considered herself a woman’s rights activist, even “back in the day.” His father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was known for promoting human and women rights, although the current Prime Minister admitted that he didn’t not believe his father considered himself a feminist.

Justin Trudeau then explained that he believes the majority of his generation sees the argument about whether or not men and women are equal and doesn’t understand why it’s even still an issue.

“I’m just one of the first of our generation to poke through and to take his face on the world stage,” Justin Trudeau explained, as reported by the Huffington Post. “And any one of my generation might have done as well as I happen to be doing.”

“We should be standing up for women’s rights and trying to create more equal societies. Duh,” Trudeau went on to say. “We should be respecting diversity and pushing back against racism. I mean, come on.”

Mlambo-Ngcuka praised Justin Trudeau for his work as a feminist and acknowledged him as a member of the #heforshe campaign. Catalyst, a non-profit equality-based organization fighting for equality in the workplace, also applauded Trudeau. The organization even went so far as to give Prime Minister Trudeau a special commendation.

“Prime Minister Trudeau, through his intentional leadership and commitment to inclusion, sets an example that shows leaders throughout the world what is possible when they deliberately build diverse teams that reflect the marketplace and the communities they serve,” Catalyst President/CEO Deborah Gillis said, according to CBC News.

At a dinner hosted by Catalyst, Justin Trudeau added a message to anyone denying that there’s much more work to do.

“If anyone you challenge to step up and do more on gender equality dares tell you: ‘we’ve come such a long way, I don’t think there’s that much left to do’ just tell them to ask any woman they know.”

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

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