The first Women’s Day was 102 years ago, a celebration by the Socialist Party of America. It became a tradition after a New York factory fire, which killed 146 workers, most of them women.
This day of commemoration began in memory of workers who died because they were exploited, whose working conditions were unfair and unsafe. Even though women were increasingly treated as equals under the law, the reality of their economic and social position remained a reality of bias, of exclusion.
At its heart, the message of Women’s Day is summed up by Margot Wallstrom, Swedish Social Democrat and European Commissioner, who said “It’s just a matter of believing that the right man, in the right place, can be a woman.”
Simple.
No complicated philosophy. Just the belief that women and men are equal.
So why, 102 years later, in New Brunswick, are women paid 14.1 percent less than men, and why is this gap growing?
