BCNU supports women around the world in marking Friday, March 8 as International Women's Day (IWD)

Each year March 8th provides an opportunity to take stock of our progress towards gender equality and to honour the contributions women are making towards this goal, in Canada and around the world.

BCNU encourages celebrating IWD in recognition of the working women who have struggled and even risked their lives to gain an equal voice in our workplaces, homes and communities.

This year the UN's theme for International Women's Day is "A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women". Canada's version is "Working Together: Engaging Men to End Violence Against Women."

Sadly, violence against women is a continuing barrier to women enjoying real equality with men. In Canada, over 50 percent of women have at some time experienced physical, emotional or sexual violence at the hands of a man.

Raising male awareness of the need for change is a key step in achieving equality. One homegrown example is BCNU's Men in Nursing Caucus, which actively participates in BC's Ending Violence Association (EVA), information about which can be found at endingviolence.org.

International Women's Day recognizes women's strides towards equality and the hurdles that remain before full equality becomes reality. Despite many significant gains in Canada, the wage gap between women and men today remains a staggering 30 per cent. Women working full-time still only make 70 cents for every dollar men are paid, on average. The gap is even greater for women of colour (68 cents/dollar) and worst for Aboriginal women (46 cents/dollar).

Having union representation is by far the best way for women to achieve fairness in wages and working conditions. In 2006, unionized women earned an average 93 per cent of the wage of unionized men.

With the growing gap between rich and poor and the unprecedented attack on workers, fighting to retain the advantages of belonging to a union is more important than ever.

To celebrate International Women's Day 2013, you can take part in various activities across the province over the week. To find an event in your community, go to: internationalwomensday.com.