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Happy International Women's Day
This mimosa bud's for you, sister
By: Pat Daley
 Happy International Women's Day!
I sure have had some good ones. Since moving to the boonies almost a decade ago, however, I've gradually stopped marching in the streets and participating in all the other activities that go along with IWD. Sometimes I even forget.
I got my reminder driving through the suburban community of Woodbridge on Monday. Cruising past street after street of monster homes, I couldn't miss the big sign in front of Reeves Florist & Nursery: "March 8, International Women's Day - Mimosa fresh from Italy."
They've been selling branches of the yellow flowers since staffer Renza Ricetto returned from Florence seven years ago. There she witnessed an Italian IWD tradition - men presenting the women in their lives with twigs of mimosa on March 8. She says they even have mimosa cakes.
What a far cry from the squalor of New York, March 8, 1908 when working women marched for equal pay, child care centres, the right to vote, and an end to sweatshop working conditions - the event now commemorated as International Women's Day.
(There was mimosa growing right outside of the factory where those mostly Italian immigrants worked, according to a correspondent for the Cougar Snews, newsletter of the U.S. Department of Defense Vincenza High School in Italy. True? I have no idea. It's the only explanation for the tradition I could find on the amazing Internet.)
Twenty-five years ago was International Women's Year. Remember those "Why Not!" buttons? Looking back at some articles I wrote at the end of that year, I see a list of demands that were put forward by the Ottawa Women's Centre:
equal pay for work of equal value - it took years but women in the federal public service are starting to get their cheques for back pay after the courts forced the government's hand
equal job opportunities - they still don't want us in submarines but pretty well every other job is open to women, even if it's still tough to get through some gates
access to free, quality child care - not even close unless you live in Quebec where five bucks a day ain't bad
removal of abortion from the Criminal Code - yes!
equal custody rights for lesbian mothers - more and more lesbians are becoming mothers together thanks to new reproductive technologies
inclusion of the term "sexual orientation" in human rights codes - even better, legislation has been introduced federally and in some provinces to recognize same-sex relationships
equal rights in marriage and property law - 50/50, buddy, whether we're married or not
availability of safe, effective birth control - yes again, but expensive if you don't have a drug plan
Well, we have come a long way, sisters! Unfortunately, some of those problems have been replaced with others. In Canada, we are seeing poverty continue to grow among single-mother-led families, a problem that no one seems to want to do anything about. Federal Finance Minister Paul Martin completely ignored these families in his budget last week.
Women's work is never done. On this day, as you take a moment to reflect, please accept a virtual sprig of mimosa … and keep on fighting!
Pat Daley is a freelance writer and editor in Athlone in Simcoe County, Ontario.
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