International Women’s Day 2025 – Workers are bringing gender justice to the ballot box

Across Canada, women and gender diverse workers are fed up with bearing the brunt of a broken economy, crumbling public infrastructure systems and precarious, low wage employment. With a federal election on the horizon, Canada’s unions are taking a stand to Rise Up for gender justice from candidate townhalls, campaign events, and lobbying sessions, all the way to the ballot box.

“Canada’s labour movement, alongside our allies in the feminist and women’s rights movements, are putting politicians from every party on notice this International Women’s Day: the time for gender justice is now,” said Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

People in Canada are struggling to afford the basics, like food, utilities, and rent. Women continue to bear the brunt of the affordability crisis—especially Indigenous, Black, racialized, newcomer, young, and 2SLGBTQI+ women and women with disabilities.

In Canada, sixty percent of minimum wage workers are women, food insecurity remains highest among female lone parent families, and 90% of families using emergency shelters are headed by single women.

Women and gender diverse workers also face disproportionately high levels of harassment and violence in the workplace. Alarmingly, third-party violence in public‑facing and care sectors—jobs typically held by women—is happening at astonishingly high rates.

“It’s clear that our country needs serious leadership and action to cement the important gains on gender equity we’ve made to date. These include union-led wins like pharmacare, affordable child care, gun control, expanded parental leave, and domestic violence leave,” added Siobhán Vipond, Executive Vice-President of the CLC. “We can’t roll back on progress—we need political leaders to commit to keep pushing forward on the progressive change we need to realize a truly inclusive world of work for women and gender diverse workers in Canada.”

Women and unions see the writing on the wall: women’s rights and gender equity issues are facing serious political backlash both here in Canada and abroad. The upsurge of far-right extremism and reckless, misogynistic conservatism is threatening the vision for human rights and dignity that Canada’s unions have championed for decades.

That’s why this past September, Canada’s unions launched Workers Together, a campaign to bring working people in Canada together to fight back against regressive politics and elect a pro-worker government.

“Let’s Rise Up and call for real leadership from our next federal government on the issues that matter to workers and their families. Issues like fighting back on indiscriminate tariffs that put Canadian jobs at risk, investing in safe, affordable housing and decent jobs for everyone, the implementation of the National Action Plan on Gender‑Based Violence including the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work, and meaningful commitments to end the workforce crisis in care sectors,” said Bruske.

“We are inviting voters across Canada to join us in reserving our ballots for politicians that communicate a clear vision for the Canada we all deserve: one that is equitable, inclusive, and commits to promoting gender equity and women’s economic justice as central components of their platform,” said Vipond.

Take action to mark IWD 2025 by joining our campaign to put workers issues on the map this election. Let’s get to work: https://workerstogether.ca/action/#actionFormArea.