Advocates say it's more important now than ever for women to uplift each other

With the arrival of a day meant to celebrate women, one Labrador West advocate says it's more important than ever for women to support one another.

Labrador West Status of Women Council executive director Kim Martin Dyer says she doesn't foresee a time when her organization won't be needed.

"I'd love to be at a point in my life where I'm not needed by a woman in crisis, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon," Martin Dyer told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.

Saturday marks International Women's Day, and this year's theme is empowerment for women of all ages, which, she said, is timely.

Specific to Labrador, she says women still face barriers when it comes to getting necessities like affordable groceries, child care, health care and housing. Getting a family doctor is "basically out of the question," she said.

"I do believe, right now in our region, that we are in a housing crisis and that certainly affects women in our area. Women with small children, single women, senior women, widowed women," Martin Dyer said.

Still far to go

But despite advancements like better wages an working conditions for women and gender diverse people, Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour president Jessica McCormick says there needs to be action to ensure those advancements are protected.

She says a surge in far-right extremism is also worrying.

"We don't just import goods from the U.S., the ideology makes its way to Canada as well. So how do we ensure that we're kind of stemming the tide of that shift here in Canada and protecting the progress that we've made while also continuing to advance," McCormick told CBC Radio's The St. John's Morning Show.

There's work to do in Newfoundland and Labrador, she said, in terms of representation in the workplace. About 60 per cent of minimum wage earners are women and there is still a gender wage gap that has yet to be closed.

"And when we look at the makeup of leadership and advancement in the workplace, we still have a lot of work to do in the public and private sector," said McCormick.

While the provincial government passed pay equity legislation in 2022, there hasn't been regulation or full implementation, she said.

"We made some progress in Newfoundland and Labrador with paid domestic violence leave several years ago, but we still have an epidemic, we would say, of intimate partner violence in the province and that trickles into affecting women in their work," she said.

But there have been some wins, McCormick added, pointing to improvements in affordable child care.

"I think that that's something absolutely worth celebrating," she said.

"We've made progress — still more to do and it feels like heavy topics to focus on — but today, I definitely feel like it's important to celebrate the accomplishments that we've made for women and gender diverse people."

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