Yukon Employees' Union February 2016 Newsletter

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RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO:

Yukon Employees’ Union 2285-2nd Ave. Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 1C9

NEWS

Breaking new trail for workers' rights & social justice. Feb 2016

Yukon Employees’ Union

International Women’s Day, March 8 International Women's Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day observed globally, also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

every dollar a man earns doing work of the same value. For women of colour, the wage gap is even greater. The World Economic Forum estimates that it will take until 2133 for the world to entirely closes the economic gender gap.

In 2016, the value of women's work cannot be denied or debated and the issues of gender parity, equal access and pay equity cannot be ignored. Even today, depending on where they live, *Canadian women earn between 74¢ and 82¢ for

Everyone - men and women - can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly - whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias. Each of us can be a leader within our own spheres of influence and commit to take pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity.

IWD has been observed since the early 1900's - a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical changes... like women in the work force! Women worked outside the home in factories, on farms, in offices, as teachers and much more. Of course they earned far less than men, no matter that their work was often exactly the same. and their work was precarious and often dangerous.

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights" Gloria Steinem

International Women's Day is about celebration, reflection, advocacy, and action - whatever that looks like globally and at the local level. Until there is true equality for women in all areas of our lives, there will be more work to do.

Any serious shift towards more sustainable societies has to include gender equality. Helen Clark


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