Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Canada is making its national anthem gender-neutral. How do other anthems compare?

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 22, 2016.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made gender equality a focus for his government Image: REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

Rosamond Hutt
Senior Writer, Forum Agenda

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made gender inclusivity a priority. After coming to power last year, he appointed an equal number of men and women to his team of ministers. And as a result, Canada has the world’s first gender-balanced cabinet.

Now Canada is making the lyrics of its national anthem gender-neutral. Under a bill passed in the country’s House of Commons, the English version of O Canada would be changed to replace the words “in all thy sons command” with “in all of us command”.

Speaking before the vote, Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu said the change was an important step to ensuring Canada becomes more inclusive towards women.

"I think it's really important as a very strong symbol of our commitment to gender equality in this country," she said.

The new bill follows a failed attempt in 2010 to adjust the anthem’s lyrics – the then Conservative government had to drop the idea following a public outcry.

‘Sexist’ anthems

Canada isn’t the first country to update its national song to include references to women as well as men. In 2012, Austria changed words in the first verse of its anthem from “great sons” to “great sons and daughters” and in the third verse “fraternal choirs” is now “jubilant choirs”.

However, other bids to change gendered language in national songs – some of which are more than 150 years old – have been unsuccessful. In 2011, a Costa Rican woman failed to convince the supreme court that her country’s anthem was sexist.

But Canada’s move may prompt other countries to look more closely at gendered language in their national anthems.

The final verse of the Star Spangled Banner, which is often skipped in performance, says “be it ever when freemen shall stand”.

In some countries’ national anthems, like in O Canada, lyrics refer to “men” and “sons” and leave out women and daughters. The Song of the Italians, for example, has the lyric: “every man has the heart and hands of Ferruccio”.

Loading...

To determine how sexist various countries’ national anthems are, The Guardian has analyzed lyrics from a small selection of anthems, looking at whether the language is more masculine, feminine or gender neutral.

 National anthems and gender
Image: The Guardian

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Gender Inequality

Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Gender Inequality is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

What is menopause – and how does it impact women’s health and work life?

Charlotte Edmond

October 23, 2024

From herding to coding: the Mongolian NGO bridging the digital divide

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum