{"id":4764,"date":"2015-03-07T19:47:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T00:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.une-sen.org\/press\/?p=4764"},"modified":"2015-03-29T16:07:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-29T21:07:40","slug":"international-womens-day-march-8-taking-stock-of-our-progress-and-taking-action-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/?p=4764","title":{"rendered":"International Women’s Day – March 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"iwd2015\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Sandy Bello<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

As International Women\u2019s Day approaches on March 8, I think about the achievements and reflect on some of the barriers that I experienced as a Canadian working woman.<\/p>\n

After a recent visit with my 91 year-old mother, I thought about the differences in our experiences as women growing up, going to school, working and raising a family. I got an amazing education in a non-traditional field and a good unionized job that provided benefits, including leave provisions and job security. But childcare was a big challenge for both of us. My dad worked hard in a low-paying job and my mom simply couldn\u2019t work until we were all in school.<\/p>\n

So, we got by on a very meager budget.<\/p>\n

As for me, I lost so much sleep worrying about finding quality, safe and affordable childcare for three kids, including twins at a time when my partner and I were struggling to meet our high-interest mortgage payments!<\/p>\n

Since those frenzied, stressful and costly days, great improvements have been made in parental leave and other benefits. But there is still<\/i> no national childcare system. Families continue to struggle with child care, all while almost 70% of mothers with kids under 5<\/a><\/span><\/span> are working. The current federal program, the Universal Child Care Benefit, just doesn\u2019t cut it for most parents. Canada lags behind other countries<\/a><\/span><\/span> as they continue to develop their early-childhood education and care systems.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Canada\u2019s labour movement is calling on all of us to make childcare an election issue. Did you know that the last federal election debate on women\u2019s issues<\/a><\/span><\/span> was in 1984?!<\/i> The NDP and the Green Party have agreed to participate in a debate on women\u2019s issues, but the Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada and the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois have not.<\/span> Campaigns are underway including Vote Child Care 2015<\/a><\/span><\/span> and Up For Debate<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

I am reaffirming my resolve to take action to move women\u2019s issues and childcare forward, not backwards. Let\u2019s all of us make this a reality and let\u2019s hope that next year’s International Women\u2019s Day will give us another reason to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Sandy Bello is the regional representative for human rights in Ontario. This article was written as part of our union\u2019s\u00a0member journalism<\/a> program. If you\u2019d like to find out more, click here<\/a> – to pitch a story or for any questions, please send an email to communications@une-sen.org<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sandy Bello As International Women\u2019s Day approaches on March 8, I think about the achievements and reflect on some of the barriers that I experienced as a Canadian working woman. After a recent visit with my 91 year-old mother, I thought about the differences in our experiences as women growing up, going to school, … <\/p>\n

>> “International Women’s Day – March 8”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,12,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4764"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4822,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4764\/revisions\/4822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}