Thank you.
I'd like to thank Ms. Stephenson and Ms. Rothman for your very interesting presentations today and for the scope you shared with us. I think it is absolutely critical.
Ms. Rothman, I'd like to pick up on some of the points you raised. First off, I wanted to note that I thought your initial point about the well-being of girls being inextricably linked to that of their mothers is a critical piece. I believe that in some ways in society we have this tendency to think that you can make it on your own. All you need is yourself, basically, when in fact, we're not always looking at the facts and the factors that determine who we end up being and what we end up doing.
The title of what we are doing is focusing on girls. But I think it's important to remember the connection with the women around us and the fact that we end up being women and facing challenges that are similar to those who have gone before us.
I wanted to ask you a bit about a point you touched on. I'd like to ask you about the trend you might be seeing in Canadian society.
Canada was known as a country that was at the top of the world when it came to gender equality in so many ways. The reality is that we have fallen in many of these ways as well. We have seen cuts to housing, child care, and legislation, such as pay equity. We continue to see violence against women, particularly targeted against marginalized women. We are seeing factors continue in our society that, of course, set women back.
I would be interested to hear about your work from Campaign 2000. To what extent might you be seeing a trend in terms of women's equality and the kind of equality girls are facing going forward?