I’m looking back at nearly 40 years of being involved with REAL Women: so many memories!

In about my mid-thirties, I first learned of REAL Woman via a newspaper article. I was always intuitively anti-feminist: I’m from a family of generations of strong, stay-at-home women, so it never occurred to me that women needed to be like men to be successful. I loved being a woman and had always wanted to be married and have children. I’d actually not heard of abortion until I was 19! So, as a full-time teacher and an Anglican, surrounded by feminists nearly everywhere, learning about REAL Women was a breath of fresh air.

One evening in the late eighties, quite excited, I went to the North York Public Library, where Gwen Landolt was going to be speaking. I agreed with everything she said but, at question time, I mentioned that I didn’t like the name, “REAL Women”, as it seemed to disrespect women who disagreed with us. Well, once involved with REAL Women and after meeting our feminist opponents in print and in person, I soon changed my mind! The word “real” perfectly describes those of us who see men as our partners, not our rivals; who revere marriage; who love our children and seek to protect them at all stages of their lives; and who believe being home with our kids is an honourable calling.

Fast forward to 1990, when, in Vancouver, I quite unexpectedly found myself the President of REAL Women: me, a full-time working mother with two young children, who were in daycare! (I worked from necessity and would rather have been home.)

With Gwen as my co-captain, my three years as President of REAL Women were exciting. My husband happily filled in when I made forays to PEI, Lethbridge, Red Deer (where I stayed with Stockwell and Val Day), Ottawa, and Calgary more than once. (There I met the very young Jason Kenney, former Alberta Premier and John Carpay, founder and president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, Calgary, AB).

It was clear, even over 30 years ago, that the powers that be, including the media, were uninterested in and even hostile to the pro-family, anti-abortion message that REAL Women promulgated. E.g., I was on CBC Radio and TV, live, two times: I was sabotaged both times, as in not being able to hear my opponents’ comments. I was OK as I simply stuck to the message I’d come to give! CBC also sidelined me when Svend Robinson a NDP MP who was a self-acknowledged homosexual refused to go on with me. When the media outlets realized that I could counter their narrative in an intelligent, persuasive way—off air, “You’re really different from what we’d expected”—I was not asked back! Despite its deficits, thank goodness we now have social media to spread the pro-family, pro-life message.

Via REAL Women’s participation in important court cases, its NGO status at the UN, its media articles and appearances, and its monthly newsletter, our organization has contributed significantly to the presentation of the truth of what’s been happening, as our civilization’s being deconstructed. In the future, if people wonder why no one spoke up, the archive will show that, among others, REAL Women did speak up: it both recognized and boldly opposed the Synthetic, Dystopian New World Order. As someone else has said, “Don’t label us far right. In fact, so far, we’ve been right all along”!

As REAL Women is a non-denominational organization, women (or men!) of any faith or no faith are welcome.  From the beginning of my association with REAL Women, the authentic faith and commitment of the many women I met made a deep impression on me. In 2005, with my mentor, Gwen Landolt, as my sponsor, I became a Catholic.

I honour all the women and men who have voluntarily supported and participated in REAL Women’s mission. But, above all, I love and revere Gwen Landolt, whose vision, faith, commitment, expertise, plain hard work, and grit over these past four decades have guided and sustained us. Deo gratias!