As part of International Women's Day, Lise Leduc, a lawyer, delivered a speech at the Beauharnois Community Center where she paid tribute to several women, including the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (SNJM). With her permission, we are including a few excerpts from her talk, entitled "We are and we will be feminists as long as it is necessary!"
I was invited to come and speak to you on this Women's Day, identifying myself as a woman whose life path could have been created from feminist thinking. I was born in 1941 and I was awakened to life in the enthusiasm, excitement, and the promise of tomorrows that the post-war years sang about.
As the youngest daughter in a family of 11 children, I soon learned about precocious responsibility from "the big sister.” I was fortunate enough, I must say, to have had women throughout my life who guided, counseled and loved me. A single glance of tenderness sometimes sufficed.
SNJM Heritage
It is with emotion that I today think of my teachers, the Sisters from the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a community that took charge of educating girls in Beauharnois.
Without them, I would not have experienced the importance of knowing, the obligation to learn more, to push further, the happiness of enjoying reading, of learning music, of writing and of speaking our beautiful language and to be proud of it. They led me to discover where there were real "golden nuggets", which became more valuable with advancing age. I take this opportunity to honor them and to thank them.