Welcome to International Women’s Day 2010. The day to celebrate women and to reflect on the gains (and losses) made in women’s progress.
While gains have been made by women, there is still much work to do. World-wide, women make up 70 per cent of the worlds’ poor, do 66 per cent of the world’s work and produce half of its food. By contrast they comprise 51% of the world’s population but possess only 10 per cent of its wealth and one per cent of its property. And there is more: according to the United Nations, over two thirds of women experience violence in their lifetime, most commonly at the hands of an intimate partner.
In Canada, where the term “equality” has been repeatedly deleted and re-inserted into the Status of Women’s mandate, women earn 30 cents less than men per dollar earned make up 22 per cent of members of Parliament and are disproportionately represented amongst Canada’s poor. Statistics Canada reports almost 1.5 million adult women lived in poverty in 2003, the most recent year figures are available. Average earnings are lower too. Again in 2003, according to Statistics Canada women who worked full-time full year earned 70.5% of their male counterparts. When all incomes are taken into account (part-time, part-year and full-year incomes) women are even worse off earning 63.6% of men’s. Half of Canadian women experience one (or more) incidents of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16 according to the Canadian Women’s Foundation. One to two women are murdered by a current or former partner each week in Canada. For other marginalized women, the situation is far worse. In Canada in the first decade of a new millennium - 520 Aboriginal women go missing and to date there has been no national inquiry. This is NOT what equality looks like!
The recent budget announced by Jim Flaherty will serve to further entrench and intensify these economic and social inequities. Job creation in the Budget was largely restricted to generating employment in male dominated work sectors. These include marine fleet facility improvements, building projects to renovate and repair federal buildings, improvements to colleges and universities, improvements to Atlantic ferry services and repairs to bridges in Montreal. There was little spending on social infrastructure projects like social services, child care, health and education – which employ women and benefit women directly.
Notably, Budget 2010 included no plan to address child care despite a study in October 2009 by the Centre for Spatial Economics in Toronto indicating that a national child care program, would increase Canada’s Gross Domestic Product by $2.30 for every dollar spent, and create four times more jobs than investing similar amounts in the construction industry. Access to affordable and high quality is essential to women’s economic equality and to children’s development. A resurgence of opposition to women’s gains has also happened under the Harper Government including a rehash of arguments on abortion, pay equity, child care and talk of “family values.”
At the International Women’s Day breakfast held by the National Democratic Party on March 8, the infiltration of U.S style tactics in the Canada’s abortion “debate” were discussed and the need for women’s value to be restored – an urgent issue for Aboriginal women, worn down by a toxic combination of sexism and racism. Of concern, Melissa Haussman was the trend of the “transmission of US prolife tactics into Canada.” These include mergers with religious based hospitals with public ones, infiltration of pro-life propaganda in medical schools (reducing the numbers of graduates able to perform abortion) and the prevalence of pro-life pregnancy counseling. Harper’s announcement that Canada’s maternal health initiative at the G8 Summit in June, would not include abortion or contraception, adds to Canada’s growing pro-life record. With 75% of Conservatives and 25% of Liberals identifying themselves as pro-life, a woman’s right to choose is at risk. Wait times for abortion are growing in Canada. Ottawa has the longest wait time in the country at six weeks, according to Haussman.
Jennifer Lord, Community Coordinator of Sisters in Spirit, an initiative in response to the 520 missing and murdered Aboriginal women, stated historically based racism and sexism fuels violence against Aboriginal women. Aboriginal women only “received” the right to vote in 1960. Aboriginal women are five times more likely to die violently and three times more likely to experience violence than non-Aboriginal women. Of concern, was the lengthy period of time taken to investigate missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Police take 3-4 years to locate a murdered Aboriginal woman after the time the disappearance is reported. It takes Lord said between 6-10 years for a criminal trial to be held, if one is held at all. As Lord stated at the breakfast, feminism is about valuing women. Women and the feminine in Aboriginal culture were traditionally valued and upheld. Clearly, this value is needed to be restored to Aboriginal women – and to all women in Canada and around the world before equality happens.
In a few short years, the gains of the second wave of feminism are being eroded. In 2004, Canada ranked seventh in the World Economic Forum Gender Index. In 2009, Canada ranked 25th. On International Women’s Day, let women’s voices be heard – and their value as women restored. | 
