International Women’s Day 2025 finds women and gender-diverse people in an increasingly precarious place. By standing together and fighting, we’ve made important progress in recent years here in BC and we cannot let that progress be threatened.
Women — already hardest hit by everything from workplace harassment and violence to the affordability crisis — now see our fundamental rights under attack abroad and at home.
Amidst a global backlash against women’s rights, the situation in the US is getting worse by the day, with abortion rights under siege, open misogyny part of mainstream political dialogue, and mass firings targeting women, Black and racialized workers, 2SLGBTQIA+ workers, workers with disabilities and many others.
Closer to home, the “Trump-lite” BC Conservatives harbour misogynist, anti-Indigenous and racist views. In the imminent federal election, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are determined to roll back progress on childcare, pharmacare and more, with many of their “Maple MAGA” MPs openly opposed to abortion.
So on this International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the tremendous contributions of working women to the labour movement. We’re drawing on that strength as we mobilize. We’re recognizing the enormous progress we’ve made. And we’re preparing to defend it.
We have come too far to let anyone take us back — whether it’s on childcare, or reproductive freedom, or reconciliation. This International Women’s Day, we declare our solidarity with women throughout BC, across Canada and around the world.