Believe it or not, there are parts of the world that have actually been celebrating International Women's Day for 100 years this March.
The idea was first proposed in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1910 at the second International Conference of Working Women. Women from 17 countries representing many social justice interests including unions and political parties attended the conference. The suggestion was unanimously approved, and the first International Women's Day was celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911.
On that day more than one million women and men rallied for women's rights, including the right to work, vote, be educated, hold public office and not be discriminated against. Less than a week later, a horrific fire in New York City took the lives of 140 mostly immigrant women. This disaster brought the plight of American working conditions for women to the forefront of International Women's Day, and that continues to this day.
The United Nations designated 1975 International Women's Year and two years later proclaimed March 8 International Women's Day. Now 27 countries, including many not thought of as particularly enlightened towards the female sex, mark March 8 as an official holiday. Canada observes the date, but not as an official holiday.
Part of the reason it's not official may be because over the past 100 years women's political participation in Canada has been hit and miss. In 1918 women were given the federal vote. In 1921 the first woman, Agnes McPhail of Ontario, was elected to the House of Commons. And it wasn't until over 70 years later that Canada had its first woman prime minister, Kim Campbell.
Campbell wasn't elected to the position and the universal disapproval of her predecessor, Brian Mulroney, led to her ousting a mere 132 days later. And along with her own defeat, the once mighty Progressive Conservative party was all but obliterated.
In B.C. a similar scenario had played out two years earlier when Rita Johnston, the first premier of a Canadian province, was soundly trounced in the polls only five months after being declared premier after the resignation of Bill Vander Zalm. And in that same election, the 40-year-old Social Credit party was decimated.
Sometime this month, another woman will become the head of our province. As was the case with Johnston, Christy Clark assumes the premiership with the resignation of an unpopular premier, Gordon Campbell. Clark is not yet a sitting member of the legislature, so that will be her first order of business. Whether she will make history by being elected premier will likely be determined later this fall.
On March 8, the 34th anniversary of the celebration of International Women's Day, we may want to ask ourselves how far women have really come in Canada. As of 2010, women still held only 23 per cent of the seats in federal, provincial and territorial legislatures. The reality would suggest we have a long way to go.
