Women’s Day Greetings 2011

Congratulations to all women on this centenary Women’s Day when we celebrate one hundred years of progress for women. I’ve been listening to Peter Gabriel sing his wonderful song Shaking the Tree with Youssou N’Dour in celebration of Women’s Day. Would be even better if it were written by a woman, but it’s hard to complain about men singing in celebration of women’s achievements.

Here is Elizabeth May being her usual eloquent self, talking not only about how we still have more to do to achieve equality, but also that we’ve recently stepped backward due to changes in the 2009 budget. It costs more to treat women fairly, and that’s apparently a luxury Mr. Harper cannot support.

I’ve also just received an update from Kiva, which my friend hooked me into a couple of months ago.  Kiva points out that

“women’s hands perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the world’s food and invest 90% of their income in their families, yet bear 70% of the world’s poverty, earn only 10% of the world’s income and own only 1% of the world’s land”

Apparently, we still have a long way to go.