It’s International Women’s Day March 8 and for the 10th year in a row, there’ll be guest speakers and a banquet to commemorate and celebrate the day.
One of this year’s speakers is Dr. Karen Wood, an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s sociology department and community researcher.
Her presentation is called: “Shhh… let’s dare talk about it: Elephants in the room and gender equality.”
“International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women – while also marking a call to action for accelerating gender equality,” says local event organizer Debi Smith.
“It can be difficult to recognize the everyday actions that enable inequality and, like the elephant in the room, we have been socialized to remain silent when we do see it. In this talk, Dr. Wood will discuss some of the challenges to achieving gender equality and offer suggestions on what we might do about it by asking how we, as caring members of our community, can become better able to both see and talk about the elephant in the room.”
Also speaking on the topic of gender bias is Constable Deborah Goble from the Burns Lake RCMP detachment.
The event at the seniors hall is free and attendance is capped at 100 people. As in past years, a Houston Woman of the Year will be revealed, said Smith.
“It’s a dry event with a free international buffet, with some new dishes this year of Korean foods, Vietnamese, East Indian, Aboriginal and Dutch,” she added.
There’ll be a silent auction, a raffle and information booths.
“Although the buffet has been donated largely by local restaurants and grocers, the seniors members are volunteering their time to run the buffet, clear and clean up for us. The silent auction has packages for everyone,” Smith said.
An annual women’s day observance dates back more than 100 years with the first one being recorded as a “National Woman’s Day” on Feb. 28, 1909 in New York City.
Attention to a specific day grew around the world once adopted by the United Nations.
Last year the United Nations theme for International Women’s Day was: ‘Think equal, build smart, innovate for change”.
