On International Women’s Day, we recognize the critical role women and gender-nonconforming workers play in the labour movement and beyond. This day has never been about empty celebrations—it is about action, solidarity, and the continued fight for economic justice, workers’ rights, and gender equality.
While International Women’s Day has come to encompass the many facets of accelerating gender equality, it is also paired with corporate pinkwashing efforts. Meanwhile, B.C. (and Alberta) has the worst gender pay gaps in so-called Canada. Such sentiments can erode the roots of International Women’s Day, which lie in labour organizing and definitive calls for policy change. It is crucial to identify who has been left behind, along with the issues that continue to impact them.
Women, particularly those in precarious jobs, continue to face disproportionate challenges in the workforce. While all workers can experience wage theft, exploitation, and workplace abuses, these issues are compounded by racial-gender pay gaps, workplace harassment, and systemic inequalities. Migrant workers, women and children working in overseas sweatshops, and sex workers are most vulnerable to these challenges, and require robust advocacy to be properly protected. This looks like:
- Status for All – Fighting for migrant workers’ permanent residency status and rejecting racism, discrimination, and scapegoating.
- Pay equity in B.C. – Last year women earned 15% less than men in B.C. This percentage increases for women and gender-diverse individuals who are Indigenous, racialized, newcomers, disabled, and/or 2SLGBTQIA+. To achieve pay equity, immediate efforts are needed to improve worker protections and close the gap for marginalized workers.
- Rights for All – Removing all exclusions of certain rights that apply to care work and agricultural work in the Employment Standards Act, – these exclusions disproportionately affect racialized women workers.
- End of gender-based violence in the workplace – This includes pay inequity, sexualized violence in the workplace, and gender-based/sexualized dress codes.
Women account for half of the labour force, and deserve to have their voices heard at every level, especially if they are in precarious and non-unionized work, which has systemically been undervalued. The Worker Solidarity Network strives to address this barrier by leading with the voices of women and gender-diverse people within the labour movement: our Executive Director Pamela Charron and Board of Directors President Sartaj Birring lead our staff and board respectively, and our Street Teams are led by non-binary and women members. In doing so, we work to center labour issues specific to these communities. This past year, WSN has worked tirelessly to advocate for and support precarious women through:
- Education: Supporting workers by providing tools on how to identify and fight against wage theft through our Know Your Rights info sessions
- Organizing and outreach: Connecting with workers on the ground from Victoria to the Lower Mainland to the Interior, expanding our Street Teams program to create new chapters in Vancouver, Coquitlam, Salmon Arm, and Vernon.
- Legal advocacy: Providing free support for precarious and low-wage workers in navigating the Employment Standards Branch complaints process.
- Campaigning: Advocating for concrete labour protections specifically affecting those in service work and outdoor/farm work by demanding Too Hot to Work protections.
International Women’s Day is a day for working women. We celebrate the wins of working women since the very first IWD in 1909, organized at the suggestion of labour activist Theresa Malkiel. In this spirit, we continue to fight for wins for women and gender-diverse workers who continue to face disproportionate challenges.
