I am also going to speak about International Women's Day.
Mr. Speaker, the Oxford dictionary defines bias as "a strong feeling in favour of, or against, one group of people, or one side in an argument, often not based on fair judgement."
Since time immemorial, women have faced bias, labelled as the "weaker sex", "hysterical", "emotional", and my personal favourite, Mr. Speaker, "angry". All words used to discredit opinions and lived experiences so that justice for women and girls remains difficult and we are taught to blame ourselves.
Mr. Speaker, this is the greatest example of gaslighting we can see in human history. And it has hurt all people, across the gender spectrum, as we now have generations of people, men, who struggle with expressing their emotions and showing vulnerability as society says those attributes are weak and belong only to the "fairer sex".
As we've heard, this year's International Women's Day theme is Break the Bias, something that I've attempted to do most of my life before I even knew what that word meant.
In 1991, I was the only girl in my high school's industrial education, or IE, class. This, after my antiquated school district finally stopped putting the girls automatically into home economics and the boys in IE.
As a child I was a "tomboy", another one of those biased words used to make women feel lesser than, implying if you don't fit into the traditional gender role you will be labelled as different and held out as an example. If I had a dollar for the number of times that I've been told that it would be hard for me to find a man, I'd be able to build housing for the entire territory, Mr. Speaker. And as I stand before you a single, never married woman, I guess they were right.
As sad as I am that I haven't fulfilled what society tells me is my purpose in life - to get married and have children - I have managed to fill my empty life with other matters, including my career as an engineer, my role as an MLA, and of course being a cool auntie.
Mr. Speaker, I may joke about this situation but as I've said before, humour is how I cope and cope I have, as women have coped for millennia. Never in my life have I so keenly been aware of being a woman, and I am proud to be part of the change that began for this nation when the legislature became the first with a majority of women. And I know the focus of this Assembly reflects our voices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.