Challenges highlighted as crowd marks International Women’s Day in Kelowna

Women at celebration encouraged to not let gender limit them

Dozens of people gathered in Stuart Park in Kelowna Thursday to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Coun. Mohini Singh highlighted the underrepresentation of women in politics.

“When women are under-represented in politics, their interests are underrepresented in public life,” said Singh.

She praised Kelowna city council for its equality.

“Half of your council here in Kelowna is made up of four strong women, and the other half is made up of men who support strong women,” she said.

Tamara McLellann, executive director of Her International, a local charity that works to empower marginalized women and girls in Canada and Nepal, said she believes Kelowna is a place where women can thrive.

“I feel like I am a woman who is empowered,” she said. “I got to know a lot of women’s organizations here, and there are so many women with big hearts who are changing lives.”

Kelly Taverner, a Kelowna outreach worker and Kelowna’s 2017 woman of the year, encouraged women to not let their gender be a limitation.

“We need to stop saying ‘because I am a woman, I cannot,’ and start saying ‘because we are women, we can,’” said Taverner. “My father never let me see my gender as a barrier, and that lesson has been so critical to who I am today.”

Karen Mason, executive director of Kelowna Women’s Shelter, said that every six days in Canada, a woman is killed by an intimate partner.

“One in three of us women will experience violence or abuse at the hands of the man we love sometime in our life,” she said.

“These are not statistics happening to nameless, faceless women. This is happening to women you know and interact with in our community every single day.”

Among all of the hardship, Mason said she believes there is hope.

“In the midst of the pain and the suffering, at Kelowna Women’s Shelter every day, we see women thriving and we empower them to thrive,” she said. “But we cannot have a time to thrive for women if the men don’t step up and speak out.”