About 40 participants walked in the International Women’s Day march in Belleville on March 8, 2016. (Photo: Nicole Kleinsteuber / Quinte News)
“Equal work for equal pay, make it happen! Education for all, make it happen! Stop violence against women, make it happen! Stop sex trafficking, make it happen!” was chanted through Belleville’s downtown core Tuesday.
About 40 people, men and women united to take part in the annual International Women’s Day march. It was one of a handful of Women’s Day events happening across Quinte.
March 8 is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
Event organizer Mieka Thorne says while there is much to celebrate there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in Canada and abroad.
The 2016 campaign theme is Pledge for Parity. According to the International Women’s Day website, the World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. Then one year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace of progress meant the gender gap wouldn’t close entirely until 2133.
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