International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
We are honoured to wish a Happy International Women's Day to the strong, brilliant, and courageous feminist women who have served as our mentors. Your perseverance and resilience in the legal profession, a profession that continues to be marked by gender inequality, made our paths easier. You know who you are. We thank you.
We would also like to thank our feminist male mentors. Your belief that gender is not a determinant of ability or talent similarly made our paths easier. You know who you are. We thank you.
For those of you who do not identify as feminists and say the word with disdain (you know who you are), please consider the following statistics:
30% of all women 15 years of age and older report experiencing sexual violence
Approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner in Canada
1.5 million women live in poverty in Canada
30% of single mothers are raising their children in poverty
34% of First Nations women and girls live in poverty
21% of visible minority women live in poverty
10 times more women than men have fallen out of the labour force in Canada since 2020
Women earn 76.8 cents for every dollar earned by a Canadian man
15.5 months is how long it takes women to earn what a man earns in 12, on average
Women with the same experience, socio-economic and demographic background earn approximately $7,200 less annually than their male counterparts
Women comprise 19.5% of the board members for Canada’s top 500 companies and only 8.5% of those are paid positions
Only 27% of seats in the House of Commons belong to women
Out of 156 countries, Canada remains in 24th place in the gender equality index
Feminism is defined as the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of gender. Given the flagrant inequality that still exists in Canada, we urge those who do not presently identify as feminists to engage in reflection, research, and to reconsider.
Happy International Women's Day. We still have a lot of work to do.
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