I called for a taxi one early morning for the train station to Kingston to facilitate a workshop for the military in “Intercultural effectiveness.” for their imminent deployment overseas. The taxi driver stopped in front of my neighbour’s house. From my vantage point, I could not see his taxi through my glass door. So that took me some time to ultimately realize that he was there. He was quite upset that first I made him wait for 5 minutes and then I requested him to help me with my bags to the car boot. As I sat in the car, he almost yelled that he had been waiting for 5 minutes. I raised my voice a bit and told him that he parked his car in front of the wrong house. Lo and Behold! The man started yelling further with statements like women don’t talk back and then suddenly he asked “are you from India?” (Probably my looks gave away my country of birth though I am a Canadian citizen) and then he said, “I have a lot of friends from India; their women are very disciplined and quiet.” I was livid for a minute or two, but then I let my anger turn into a quiet curiosity. I did have a lingering fear as it was dark outside and this was the only taxi on a deserted street and so I pretended to be on phone with my husband. I left with a question on my mind, “What if the man saw me as a human being first?”
How do you practice gender equality in your daily life? Worth giving it some thought?