March 8th is International Women’s Day. It is a day to celebrate women’s accomplishments and all that we do. It is also a day to honour those who began the struggle and continue the struggle to improve women’s lives.

As women, we have made many gains, but we must continue to work together towards further change and ask our brothers to work with us and support us in the struggle. When we examine our history some of these gains and some of the challenges we still face become apparent.

Historically, women quite often never entered the workforce or did so for only a short period of time, when the extra income was necessary or during wars. War opened up many opportunities for women, but they were strongly encouraged to return to the home when the war ended. A woman’s place was supposed to be in the home, raising children, caring for her husband and doing housework.

If women were employed, they were usually employed as domestic labourers although some industrial employers relied on the employment of women. They believed that single women were more desirable because they had more free time, they were passive, easier to control than men and a source of cheap labour. Women’s wages were generally only half of what men received.

If possible, families would not send women and girls out to work. The factories were not considered desirable places for women, due to the poor health and safety standards and the fear of sexual and physical abuse. After the turn of the century, the growth of clerical positions offered safer workplaces, but not better paying jobs, due to the large numbers of women competing for these positions.

Women also became employed in retail, nursing and teaching. The jobs that already seemed like "women’s work", caring for the sick and the young. Women’s options in the labour force were very restricted and hardly ever allowed for advancement.

It was difficult to unionize female workers. They usually were employed in small workplaces or at home. However, women did campaign for better conditions and support picket lines, dispelling the myths that they were not interested in or willing to commit time to union business.

We must encourage women to take an active role in their union. We can make it easier for them to do so by providing dependant care, gender parity policies and affirmative action positions and implementing these policies within our organizations. Perhaps we need to go beyond dependant care and change the imbalance of domestic responsibility.

The lives of women have improved over the years, however inequality still exists. Women are still paid less than men and remain poorly represented on governing bodies. Sexual and physical abuse, are still sad realities many women face.

Although the wage gap between men and women has decreased, women’s incomes are still only about 61% of men’s incomes. 1 in 5 women in Canada live in poverty and 56% of single parent women are poor. Much of the work we do is still unpaid work and continues to be undervalued.

If a woman loses her job she may no longer qualify for Employment Insurance (EI). EI now only covers about 30% of unemployed women. In 2002 nearly 300 000 women who will lose their jobs will not qualify for UI protection. The percentage of female workers under the age of 45 covered by UI is only 28%.

Within our federal government in 2002, women represent only 21% of the Members of the House of Commons, 23% of the Cabinet Ministers and 30% of the Senate of Canada. In Alberta women make up only 20% of the Members of the Legislative Assembly.

The number of women in the workforce has increased dramatically. However there has also been an increase in the number of part-time jobs, which employ mostly women. Unionization has resulted in better wages and benefits in traditional areas of employment. However women working full-time in unionized work places still earn only 82% of men’s incomes.

There have been significant gains. Today, women enjoy more freedom in choosing a career. We are free to choose if and when to have children and we have won the fight to vote. But clearly, much remains to be done.

As women we gain the strength from the victories of the past, to continue fighting in the future. Women desire equality at home, in the community, in the workplace and also within the union.

Happy International Women’s Day.