never be complete equality until women
themselves held make laws and elect
lawmakers my name is Brenda Rousseau D
and I was the first South Asian woman
elected to Surry City Council in 2014 I
ran for mayor and I lost I’m going to
share the story of my journey and my
journey as a South Asian woman it’s
interesting because I’ve always defined
myself as Canadian but what I learned in
the 2014 campaign was that gender race
patriarchy and populism played a very
big role and is one of the reason we
don’t have more South Asian women
seeking office in my journey I learned
that we have come a long way but we have
a long way to go
in the South Asian community gender bias
starts at birth the birth of men and
boys is celebrated and the birth of
girls is often warned it’s not to say
that we haven’t made progress I know
that men in the South Asian community
are also not comfortable with the
cultural expectations that are thrust
upon them and as we move forward we need
to do that together after the election I
was invited to a school to speak a young
woman ran up to me and gave me a big hug
and she said I desperately tried to get
my dad to vote for you and he said no
she’s divorced in that moment I felt
like I had been kicked in the stomach I
felt trapped and I felt vulnerable but
at the same time something inside of me
said whoa this wasn’t about your ability
your skills or your qualification this
I left my marriage after 23 years nobody
cared for my reasons for leaving or who
I was what it became was a story that I
was a disrespectful woman and I had
dishonored my family but nobody had
talked to my family about my decision
divorce is still considered a taboo and
sadly in some cultures divorce is a
taboo but in the name of Honor they
murdered those they’re supposed to love
and protect the United Nations estimates
that over 5,000 women are killed each
year in the name of protecting family
honour they are stabbed they are burned
they’re buried alive in the announcement
for me running for mayor it was very
interesting that I was seen as the
front-runner because there are more sort
South Asians in Surrey than any city
outside of India and I quickly realized
that it came to a complete shock to
people that I was trailing so badly in
the lead-up to my announcement a very
tragic events happened in the community
a temple leader be his elderly wife to
death I was called by the media to
comment but my campaign team cautioned
me against commenting because men in the
community would be offended and they had
the power to sway thousands of votes
thousands sad reality is they do have
the power in the political process they
have the power to either elevate you in
a nomination or to knock you down they
have the power to raise funds or break
the licenses with potential fundraising
partners in partisan politics they’re
often the ones with the seat at the
table that make a decision on who makes
a qualified candidate well I did the
interview anyways when I was elected I
had decided that I
voice and I needed to use that voice and
so I created the Surrey coalition
against domestic abuse and I helped
start the Rakhi project the Rakhi
project actually honors real values real
siltation values of love and respect the
stronger I got that thicker the glass
ceiling got the more recognition I got
from residents in the community the more
media attention I got the more the
now I look at where we go from here and
I look at how do we dismantle patriarchy
and how do we make the conversation
around ethnicity and gender not to be
the leading dialogue when we decide who
is good to represent us so I look at
young people in the South Asian
community and how hard they are fighting
for the same battle that I am fighting
with just to be a true Canadian at the
doorstep we also heard many many times
that I was too Brown for some people and
too white for some in my community as I
look at the young woman and think of the
young woman as she interests her career
I hope that she is able to understand
that her true value will come from the
commitment that she makes in honoring
herself but how does she do that in a
culture where at birth she is told she
is not equal I’ll tell you how that
happens that’ll happen in the home I
have three children I teach my daughter
that she is equal I teach her she is no
less but no greater than anyone that she
does not have to play by the rules of
the game
to be a part of the boys club I teach my
son’s that they have a responsibility
but let me tell you I feel the burden of
the heaviness that I know that the
cultural expert
patience and norms that they have the
freedom to be boys will be boys or men
will be men and how that plays a role in
shaping them on who they are and how
they move forward in their future I
think that all of us in this room as we
move forward and we move forward to make
sure that we are taking the political
process not as something that is foreign
to us but it’s something that we have
impact on that we compel partisan
politics to look at candidates based on
all the things that we are seeing
ourselves not based on them having the
power to screen people out because of
their gender and their ethnicity
so that patriarchy doesn’t have the same
control on domination processes and on
fundraising processes because that is
how we will ultimately affect change
because susan b anthony was right that
until we have more women who are part of
those decisions nothing changes and I
want to end I want to end with a quote
I’m ending my speech with a quote from a
map and many women or feminists may say
in there there’s no room for men in this
equation that there is an equal role for
men in the suppression because until men
step up and until men are prepared to
put aside those barriers that create the
glass ceilings for the double glass
ceilings nothing will change and
President Obama has said that we must
carry forward the work of women who came
before us and ensure our daughters have
no limits to their dreams no obstacles
to their achievements and no remaining
ceilings to shatter for their success
thank you very much and next time you
cast the ballot cast the ballot looking
at your candidate and making sure that
we’re all evading more women to the
position of making those types of
decisions so that the future generations
are actually have impactful change that
won’t take a hundred years to make men and women people thank you