Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day (IWD). For more than a century IWD has been observed around the world to raise awareness of issues affecting women. It is a global day to recognize and celebrate advancements while reminding us of the need for continued vigilance and action.

The UN has declared, A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women as the theme for 2013. In echoing this, Canada’s theme is Working Together: Engaging Men to End Violence against Women. The Saskatchewan Status of Women Office website states: “In Saskatchewan, between April1, 2011 to March 31, 2012: 772 women and 983 children entered emergency shelters due to circumstances of interpersonal violence and abuse.”

Violence against women touches us all. It affects the conditions in which we live, work and learn. Working towards ending it will make our country, our province, our city and our University better.

The CAUT Statement on International Women’s Day 2013 can be found on the CAUT website at http://www.caut.ca/pages.asp?page=1139.

The official women’s day twitter handle is @womensday. Please use the following hashtags when tweeting: #womensday, #IWD2013, #cdnpse, and #cdnpoli