International Women’s Day
March 8, 2012
International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world on March 8. It is a
date that is recognized by the United Nations and is a designated holiday in
many countries. It is a day to reflect on women’s struggle for equality,
justice, peace and development. There have been numerous significant historical
events associated with International Women’s Day. In Canada, these important events
include (courtesy of www.citizenshift.org):
1859 – An Upper Canada law allows married women to own property.
1875 – Grace Annie Lockhart graduates from Mount Allison
University and is awarded the first university degree to a woman.
1880 – Emily Stowe becomes the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
1883 – The Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association is the outcome of a meeting of the Toronto Women’s Literary and Social Progress Club in the city council chamber organized to discuss the question of woman suffrage.
1885 – In Alberta, unmarried women property owners gain the right to vote and hold office in school matters.
1909 – In Newfoundland, the Ladies’ Reading Room was created and was crucial in the development of the suffrage movement, providing a social space where women could hold debates, hear lectures on women’s rights and access a selection of papers and magazines.
1909 – The Criminal Code is amended to criminalize the abduction of women.
1912 – The United Farmers of Alberta endorse women’s suffrage.
1916 – Manitoba becomes the first province to give women the right to vote and hold provincial office.
1916 – Women gain the right to vote and run for office in Saskatchewan provincial elections.
1916 – The Alberta Equal Suffrage Act gives women ‘absolute equality’ with men in provincial, municipal, and school affairs, and thus permits women to vote and run for office in all Alberta-based elections.
1917 – Alberta becomes the first province to adopt a minimum wage law for women.
1917 – B.C. becomes the first province to give mothers the same rights over their children as fathers.
1918 – The Canada Elections Act gives all women over 21 the federal vote (May 24).
1921 – Agnes McPhail of Ontario becomes the first woman elected to
the House of Commons.
1925 – Women gain the right to vote and run for office in Newfoundland elections.
1925 – The federal divorce law in changes, allowing women
for the first time to obtain a divorce on the same grounds as men.
1927 – The ‘Famous Five’ – Irene Parlby, Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards and Louise Crummy McKinney – petition for a Supreme Court of Canada interpretation on whether the term ‘qualified persons’ in section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, includes women as persons eligible for appointment to the Senate.
1929 – The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England overturns the decision of the Supreme Court “Persons” case, and women were ‘eligible to be summoned to and become members of the Senate of Canada’ (October 18).
1934 – The Department of Justice decides that women can
hold this position, but the first such appointment did not come until 1974 when the Honourable Pauline McGibbon became Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
1940 – Women gain the right to vote and run for office in Quebec provincial
elections.
1947 – Chinese- and Indo-Canadians are granted the right
to vote.
1948 – Japanese-Canadians are granted to right to vote.
1952 – Ontario becomes the first province to put equal pay legislation into effect.
1957 – Prime Minister John Diefenbaker names Ellen Fairclough Secretary of State, the first woman cabinet minister in Canadian
history.
1960 – Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples – including Aboriginal women – are finally granted a ‘no-strings-attached’ right to vote.
1964 – Bill 16 is passed in Quebec’s National Assembly giving married
women the same rights as their husbands.
1967 – Prime Minister Lester Pearson establishes a Royal
Commission on the Status of Women.
1969 – Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government decriminalizes
contraception and allows abortion under certain circumstances.
1970 – Royal Commission on the Status of Women recommends
changes to the military to create equal conditions for all.
1971 – The federal government creates the cabinet
portfolio of Minister Responsible for the Status of Women.
1972 – British Columbia NDP MLA Rosemary Brown becomes the first Black woman in Canada to be elected to a legislature.
1974 – The first female RCMP recruits begin training at Regina. 1974 – The Native Women’s Association of Canada is established.
1982 – The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is
adopted, including Section 15, the Equality Clause.
1983 – Criminal Code changes replace rape with three
categories of sexual assault, giving equal protection to men and women under the law, and allowing spouses to charge each other with sexual assault.
1984 – The Right Honourable Jeanne Sauvé becomes the first
woman to hold the office of the Governor General.
1985 – The Indian Act is amended giving aboriginal women
the right to retain their Native status, and to pass that status on to their
children, if they marry non – native men.
1988 – The Supreme Court of Canada strikes down Canada’s
abortion law as unconstitutional. (The law is found to violate Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it infringes upon a woman’s right to
‘life, liberty and security of person.’ Chief Justice Brian Dickson writes:
‘Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction to carry a foetus to term
unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and
aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus a
violation of her security of the person.’ Canada is now one of a small number
of countries without a law restricting abortion. Abortion is now treated like
any other medical procedure and is governed by provincial and medical
regulations.)
1989 – Audrey McLaughlin, Member of Parliament from the Yukon, is elected as the leader of the federal New Democratic Party and becomes the first woman ever to lead a national political party in Canada.
1989 – Decision of Canadian Human Rights Commission tribunal The Commission appoints a tribunal to investigate the complaints of four women and one man, all members of the military. On February 20, 1989, the tribunal rules that all obstacles to women’s access to any military job must be removed, with two exceptions: service aboard submarines and Catholic chaplains.
According to the United Nations, International Women’s Day “has assumed a
new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The
growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four
global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a
rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women’s rights and
participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly,
International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for
change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who
have played an extraordinary role in the history of women’s rights.”
OPSEU Provincial Women’s Committee is involved in organising and supporting
various International Women’s Day events throughout the province. In Region 2,
Vanessa Silverman, the Provincial Women’s Committee Representative, has
arranged for Uzma Shakir, Director of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights for
the City of Toronto to speak on March 3, 2012 at the Region 2
Educational, at the Delta Meadowvale Hotel, Mississauga, Ontario.
She has also sponsored tables and prizes for the Oakville
and District Labour Council’s dinner on March 6th, 2012, and the Brampton and Mississauga
District Labour Council’s brunch on March 25th, 2012. She will also be supporting the Guelph
and District Labour Council event on March 8th, 2012. In addition, OPSEU has been
asked to participate in this year’s International Women’s Day Rally and March on
March 3, 2012 to send the message that we need good public services and good
jobs. Members are asked to meet at 10:30am on March 3, 2012 at OISE, 252 Bloor St West, Toronto,
Ontario, to make a sign for the rally and march with your job and the service you provide.
There is also a flash mob dance.
If you would also like to participate in a flash mob dance during the march on
the steps of Old City Hall, please attend the rehearsal on Wednesday Feb 29, 2012, from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM at 31 Wellesley St. East, Toronto, Ontario.
The IWD rally and march is a fantastic annual celebration of the struggle for women’s liberation.
Thousands come out each year. Join OPSEU this year. For information
contact Pam Johnson (Local 562) or email her at
johnson.pam1@gmail.com.For additional information
on International Women’s Day, please visit http://www.internationalwomensday.com
