International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's. Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women's Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike.

For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as International Women’s Year by the United Nations.

Women's organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women's advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

IWD is now an official holiday in Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother's Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

___________

Today, as women across Canada celebrate their hard-won gains on International Women's Day, they face a continuing struggle to stem the job losses in the manufacturing sector - some of the better jobs
for women in the paid labour force.

Over the past five years women have lost a proportionately greater share
of their manufacturing jobs than have men. Among the most recent are the women of Hershey Chocolate, where the company has announced a closure for 2008. They and the entire community of Smiths Falls, Ontario are fighting to save the 500 jobs.

Canadian Auto Workers Director of Women's Programs Julie White says "We
need to understand that there's a woman's face on many of these job losses. Too often it's assumed that men alone are losing factory jobs. But if we stop to think about the sectors where women work - food, manufacturing, fish processing, auto, auto parts, aerospace, general manufacturing and more - it's obvious this crisis has hit women and men alike."

"The setbacks to women's equality and hard-won gains are very real. Our
union is calling on all levels of government to start providing more
leadership in the fight to defend manufacturing jobs in Canada, some of the better jobs available to women in the paid labour force."