On March 8, women and men around the world will celebrate International Women鈥檚 Day for the 103rd time. The annual event was created more than a century ago to bring a voice to the fight for women鈥檚 equality and to celebrate the contributions women make to society every day.
Since its humble beginnings in 1911, March 8 has exploded into a global day of recognition and celebration. It鈥檚 a day to ruminate on the achievements of the past and to look forward to the fights of the future.
For women in Canada, many battles have already been won; women have gained the right to vote, the right to an education, the right to a career and the right to run for office.
But it鈥檚 important to remember that these feats weren鈥檛 won long ago. It wasn鈥檛 until the First World War that women gained the right to vote鈥攆or women in Quebec it wasn鈥檛 until 1940.
And it wasn鈥檛 until 1929 that women were even considered 鈥減ersons鈥� under Canada鈥檚 constitution.
As for education, women have been attending school for years. In fact, the first woman in the entire British Empire to practice law was a Canadian: Clara Brett Martin. She achieved this in 1897, despite taunting from her classmates, professors and the media, who suggested that the physical attraction between a female lawyer and the judge and jury would provide an unfair advantage.
We can scoff at such treatment today, 117 years later, but we also don鈥檛 have to look very far to find similar cases.
In the 1960s, when Barbara Landau鈥攁 Canadian psychologist and lawyer鈥攖old the deans of both the psychology department and law school that she was planning to apply, she was greeted with similar responses to Martin鈥檚 more than 60 years before.
According to an article Landau wrote, titled 鈥淢y life as a woman in Canada,鈥� she was asked by her deans, 鈥淲hy would we want to waste a graduate school position on a woman鈥攜ou will just get married, have babies and stay at home?鈥�
Now, of course, more recently, women make up a greater percentage of university graduates in Canada. Numbers from 2007 show that 61 per cent of university graduates that year were women.
But, even with such gains, women are still facing inequities in wages, on average making about 77 cents for each dollar made by their male counterparts.
That ranks Canada No. 11 out of its 17 peer countries, with Norway, Belgium and Ireland coming in first, second and third with the smallest income gaps. Directly behind Canada, in the 12th spot, is the United States.
Women have been fighting for equality for more than 100 years and, in that time, those fighting have certainly made great strides to improve the lot of women. But, until women are paid an equal wage for equal work, they will not be equal.
And, until women start occupying an equal number of seats in government鈥攔ather than 23 per cent of them鈥攖hey will not be equal.
And, until women can safely walk home after a night out, without the risk of being sexually assaulted鈥攐ne in 17 Canadian women will be raped in their lifetime鈥攖hey will not be equal.
So, on March 8 and every day of the year, remember that although women have come a long way, there is still a long way to go and there is still a fight to be fought.
