Happy International Women's Day!

Today is International Women's Day!  It is a great day to stop and reflect about all that women have achieved throughout the world and within Canada.  Some of the key highlights in the 20th century for Canada include:

• Fighting for and winning the right to vote
• The Famous Five's battle for Canadian women to be known as "persons"
• Taking active roles in politics  
• Stepping up in a wide and diverse range of leadership positions
• Working together to obtain a Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada
• Creating a wide range of women's studies courses at universities
• Advocating for women to take up non-traditional professions such as engineering

Women have worked together to take these great strides and many others.  Excellent examples of what is still possible include this past week's celebration of women in aviation during Women of Aviation Worldwide week.  For more information about this exciting venture see:
http://www.womenofaviationweek.org/about/

This year also marks 40 years since the UN encouraged the celebration of women through International Women's Year or IWY in 1975.  When IWY was declared Elsie MacGill was very excited and she participated in many different ways.  She joined a Canadian speaker's bureau set-up to celebrate the year, she wrote articles about women in engineering and she undertook special projects to celebrate, promote and help women.  

As always, Elsie's promotion of women was done with men in mind.  As an engineer, she new that to really achieve anything significant teamwork was necessary and she was living proof that men and women could work together to achieve joint goals and objectives.  

As she noted:

"And give men a break.  Don't keep them on the outside.  Let them join us in our projects to help other women."  (p.195 Queen of the Hurricanes)

Happy International Women's Day!  Let the important women in your life know that you appreciate them, and share the celebration with the important men in your life too!

Cheers!
Crystal