AFL-CIO Celebrates International Women's Day

For Immediate Release Contact: Zoe Bridges-Curry (202) 637-5212

AFL-CIO Celebrates International Women’s Day

Pledges ongoing support for working women as fight to create jobs continues

March 8More than 100 years since the first celebration of International Women’s Day, the AFL-CIO today honors the improvements made for working women over the past century. But today also serves as a reminder of just how far we still have to go to achieve equal pay, rights, and respect for working women, both here in the U.S. and around the globe.

The AFL-CIO has a history of advocating for working women—most recently, signing on to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Global Union Federations’ Global Campaign for Decent Work, Decent Life for Women in 2008. "The AFL-CIO has a long-standing commitment to gender equality in the workplace," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler said. "And today we're reaffirming that commitment, standing firm with workers around the world to call for a more equitable and inclusive future for women."

In the U.S., women’s presence in the workforce and in labor unions is still on the rise. Women now make up nearly half of union members and over half of the total workforce, but remain disadvantaged relative to men in the vast majority of labor markets, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

In addition to higher poverty rates and the ongoing prevalence of sexual and domestic violence, the United Nations reports that women earn between 30 and 40 percent less pay than men for equivalent work. And in the wake of the financial collapse, women in the U.S. are shouldering the added burdens of sky-high unemployment, rampant foreclosures, and inadequate access to health care.

It’s clear that the jobs crisis is a crisis for working women. But like the women who marched in New York City over 100 years ago for shorter working hours, better pay, an end to child labor, and the vote, women today are fighting back. As labor readies for a massive campaign to create the jobs our country desperately needs, the AFL-CIO is proud to stand with them in that fight.

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Posted on March 8, 2010 in Weekly Update.