Happy International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day, everyone!

Do you know that it's been 100 years since this day was first celebrated?

"The last century has seen an unprecedented expansion of women's legal rights and entitlements," former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said, pointing to virtually universal voting rights for women, major inroads for women in professions from which they were banned, laws penalizing domestic violence in two-thirds of the world's nations, and U.N. Security Council recognition of sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of war
(http://ca.news.yahoo.com/international-womens-day-marks-100th-anniversary-equality-still-20110307-210800-722.html).

However, the head of the new U.N. women's agency added that the fight for equality is far from over.

"Girls are still less likely to be in school than boys, almost two-thirds of illiterate adults are women, and every 90 seconds a woman dies in pregnancy or due to childbirth-related complications despite the knowledge and resources to make births safe, she said, and women continue to earn less than men for the same work and have unequal inheritance rights and access to land" (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/international-womens-day-marks-100th-anniversary-equality-still-20110307-210800-722.html).

But Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, pointed out that "equal rights are advanced when girls can avoid child marriage and enjoy equal access to education, both men and women can plan their families, and pregnant women no longer fear losing their jobs" (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/international-womens-day-marks-100th-anniversary-equality-still-20110307-210800-722.html).

For more information about International Women's Day, please check out: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/08/f-womens-day-history.html.

Dahlia