In our culture, men are typically responsible for the fire and the food, and women are responsible for the fruit and the water. If you lose one half of that equation, the world is not in balance and you're not feeding your family. If you don't have water, you don't have food. If you don't have shelter and fire and the care that women provide.... All of those things have to come together, and they lean equally on each other. That's the cultural understanding that we have and the approach to the world that I was raised in.
I come from a family of five girls. My dad was probably the best girl dad you could ever imagine. He always made us feel like we were important, empowered and an equal party in anything we did. He treated my mother that way, and that's a really refreshing cultural approach that I don't hear about in a lot of communities or a lot of families across Canada. Understanding that you can be partners and that you each have an equal role to play is the foundation for building better relationships and empowering women to participate in economy and industry roles.
Michelle, I know that you and I talk about this all the time. We are sitting at this table as mothers, and it is a really important place for the next generations to see us in.