For the last hundred years, women around the world have marked March 8th as a day to reflect, remember, regroup and renew their struggle for economic and social equality in their communities and their workplaces. It has been a struggle marked by great gains, enormous bonds of solidarity, the courage to press ahead despite considerable opposition and an understanding that the gains made to date provide the platform for secure true equality in the future.

From its early beginnings with groups like the Women's Trade Union League, the women's movement has always shown tremendous conviction. The decades-long fight for voting rights in the United States and Canada are just a few examples of that conviction. Similar struggles have been part of the fight for workplace equality and pay equity legislation.

Women in post-secondary education have been part of that struggle and have found ways to ensure that equality has meaning in our sector as well. Women activists within our union have championed bargaining demands over the thirty years that we have had the right to bargain collectively with our employers. For example, through their activism we have been able to secure contracts that provide greater wage equality through a salary scale that treats all faculty the same regardless of their academic discipline. Their activism has also made a difference in many of our negotiated benefits where we have included accommodation of family leave provisions to ensure that women are not unfairly treated as a result of maternity leaves or breaks in pensionable years of employment.

Women in our sector have also been strong proponents of international solidarity. They have pushed to make international solidarity support efforts within our union a reality. Many have also contributed directly to those efforts by participating in education projects in the developing world.

March 8th is a day to celebrate the gains that women have achieved and remember the work that still needs to be done. Our world has great potential, a point that women across our planet recognize every day and are working hard to achieve. Through continued solidarity we will make that potential a reality.