International Women's Day: Young women talk feminism, Lise Thriault

International Women's Day comes just a weekafter Lise Thriault,the Quebec minister responsible for the status of women, said she believes in equal rights for men and women butrejected the label of being a feminist.

Following criticism over her statement that she is an egalitarian,Thriaultsaid that she is indeed a feminist "in her own way."

We asked young women at Concordia University, who proudly identify as feminists, what they make of Thriault's comments.

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Francesca Esguerra

It sends a message that in order to besuccessful you need to give into this man's world and you need to feed into these other ideas you can't be an individual and share your own idea about things.

I think she is trying to compromise her beliefs in order to please more people.

Ariane Charbonneau

What I make of this is basically a lack of commitment by saying that you're an egalitarian and not a feminist acknowledges the fact you don't know what feminism is.

It's her job. In a way if you're supposed to serve women,it's a little bit as if the ministry of environment was against environmental policies. It's contradictory in a way. If you're going to advocate for women's conditions then you should better women's conditions.

milieLamoureux

It's very surprising that she doesn't consider herself a feminist especially as her title should include her feeling this as a core part of her identity.

I personally feel insulted that she hasn't taken the time to learn what this word means that is so important in today's culture and has been in different periods of course.

Morag Macquarrie-Patterson

I thought it was disappointing that she chose to say that she was not a feminist.

I think it would have been better to have not said anything at all. It would have been better to just not say anything at all rather than identify as a feminist.

By saying that she's not,she's adding to history where the word feminist has really been discredited and has almost become a dirty word. It's really damaging to the movement and to women who identify as feminists.