With International Women’s Day around the corner, it’s a good time to reflect on where we are and where we’re going.
The day, established in 1911, is a day to recognize the achievements of women and girls all over the world, raise awareness against bias and take action for equality. This year, on March 8, the theme is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.”
It’s always great to strive for equality. It’s even better when we reach it. It just seems sometimes like it’s taking forever to get there.
Around the world, women are still fighting for equal rights and pay, to vote, and for basic rights, respect and dignity – all of the tenets of the movement when it first began. At the time, only eight countries allowed women to vote and the notion of equal work for equal pay was non-existent. Some women were not allowed to work at all and that still persists in some parts of the world today.
“Unfortunately, women still face cultural, socio-economic and political barriers to accessing leadership,” according to the International Women’s Development Agency.
Here in the South Cariboo, we are blessed to have some strong women in leadership. People like Helen Henderson, Chief of the Canim Lake Band or Canim Lake’s Margo Wagner, chair of the Cariboo Regional District. Both have big jobs in a time when the world is in flux. We have also female fire chiefs and young women at the top of our South Cariboo Search and Rescue. More females are also taking on political roles and running their own businesses, while countless others are on the frontlines in dealing with the pandemic.
But we, too, still have work to do.
Maybe now, in a time when all of our roles are changing and traditional jobs are being lost are readjusted, this is a good time to reevaluate and find ways to close the gender gap even further. Women and men all go to the same schools, pay the same rates and do the same jobs. We all deserve the same respect.
