While International Women’s Day is one dedicated to celebrating the females in our lives, Sophie Trudeau, wife of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, had a different message for women. In a Facebook post yesterday, she called for a celebration of “the boys and men in our lives who encourage [women] to be who we truly are.”
Despite this, members of the Ryerson community are focusing on the women in their lives, rather than the men. We took to Ryerson campus to ask students who the most inspirational women in their lives are.
Rachael Dineen
Second-year international economics and finance student
“It’s probably really cheesy, but my mom. She’s a single mom and she works so hard and had to do everything herself. She went back to school and still raised me and my brother. It’s just great, it’s so inspiring to want to be like her.”
Hana Mohamed
First-year electrical engineering student
“My grandmother was pretty inspirational. She was a doctor, a gynecologist I believe, and she travelled basically everywhere. I’m from Egypt, where people assume we’re all oppressed women, but my grandmother went to med school and then she travelled to places that needed help.”
Calvin Coplen
First-year biomedical engineering student
“My mother is. She’s a go-getter. She has a very good moral code and she achieves her goals and teaches me how to do the same.”
Nicholas Couillard
First-year mechanical engineering student
“I’d say my grandmother. She’s 90 and she just opened up a camping ground in Mexico, so she’s still going. It’s pretty inspirational.”
Marquitta Crichlow
PhD student from Michigan, visiting Ryerson
“My mother. She has been through a lot with me as a kid, she has made sacrifices for me. Things that she has said and done, I didn’t understand when I was younger. As I got older, now I understand where she was coming from and the sacrifices she made. She’s my queen.”
Lisa-Marie Pierre
PhD student from Michigan, visiting Ryerson
“I would have to say my grandmother. I’m from the U.S. and she came from Haiti to the U.S. She was really poor in Haiti, came to the U.S., learned how to speak English and was able to buy property. She only had a sixth-grade education but was able to do so much. Whenever I think of her, I think of perseverance and possibilities.”
David Linardi
First-year computer engineering student
“Probably my mom because of everything she does for our family and all the people around me in my life. It’s just impressive.”
Caroline Ferreira
First-year criminology student
“Little girls are probably the most inspirational because they’re the ones who always find men and women equal. They don’t really find differences in between them.”
Check out our video here: