This year’s International Women’s Day celebrations on March 8, 2011, could be particularly joyful. It is the centenary of the first International Women’s Day rallies organized in 1911 which brought together scores of women and men to speak up for women’s rights in countries such as Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland.
Many Hats: Sisters Sharing Hope Vision Solidarity, the theme adopted by the Ontario Federation of Labour for this year’s International Women’s Day, is a salute to the many roles women play as workers, mothers and activists. It is an optimistic theme, reflecting the unity of those who came together during those early IWD marches a hundred years ago. It also echoes the slogan “Sisterhood is Powerful” from the women’s movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. It is this solidarity in sisterhood that over the years has won advances in women’s equality such as the right to vote, protection from discriminatory hiring practices, recognition of property rights, greater opportunities in education and careers, and legalized access to birth control and safe abortion.
But notice I wrote that this IWD could be a joyful celebration. International Women’s Day has traditionally been a day to celebrate women and the progress we have made in past decades. Yet it is also a time of reflection when we weigh our losses as well as our gains and, as the United Nations’ Women Watch puts it, “an opportunity to unite, network, and mobilize for meaningful change.”
And while there have been gains, there is still much that needs changing. Closing the gender gap in pay, building universal daycare, eliminating poverty among women and children, getting rid of pervasive sexism in the media, stopping the growing right-wing attacks on equality rights and freedom of speech, eradicating violence perpetrated against women, winning employment standards and policies that respect families of all types and configurations…it’s a long list.
It is for these reasons that in communities around the globe, on March 8th, women will celebrate their history of solidarity in sisterhood, even as they still organize around their shared hopes and vision for a better future.
Sue Melville is a member of District 3, Rainbow
TBU and of provincial Status of Women. |
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