Sheena Zain wants more conversation about women’s issues.
February is normally the dullest time of the year for businesses around Ottawa, but not for one Centretown retailer combining her marketing skills and political perspective to attract customers.
Sheena Zain, manager of Aziz & Co. Handicraft at the corner of Bank and Gilmour streets, has decided to bring “something fun” to her boutique by offering a 15-per-cent discount to feminists during what she’s calling “Feminist February.”
Zain says she wanted to do something different to get people talking about women’s issues at a time when she fears the movement has taken a turn for the worse.
The fast-talking, 40-something merchant says she has been “baffled and disappointed” to hear the same conversations about gender inequality as she did during her 20s.
Zain says while the response to her feminist discount has been mostly positive, a few customers have been perplexed by what feminism means and unsure of their stance on the issue.
Rena Bivens, postdoctoral fellow and adjunct professor at Carleton University’s Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies, says radical feminism and generalizations about the movement have contributed to the idea that feminism is one thing: hatred of men.
That’s why the sign Zain has posted outside her shop for the discount clarifies her understanding of feminism. It reads: “Belief in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.”
Zain says feminism has never been about the division of the sexes, but about equality, which is what she is trying to address with “Feminist February.”