Changing face of Women's Day

Some fear Canadian women are missing the message of International Women's Day

Djurdjica Halgasev plans on making today special for her mother.

The settlement counsellor at the Guelph and District Multicultural Centre will bring roses to her mom and then wish her a happy Women's Day.

It's something she does every year, a tradition dating back to her childhood in the former Yugoslavia. Halgasev came to Guelph at 16, but this annual commemoration to honour women, which goes back to the early 1900s, has never lost its significance for her.

"It's not just the mothers, it's all women who we're celebrating," the 34-year-old said yesterday. But she's worried International Women's Day -- established to honour the women's rights movement -- doesn't resonate in the same way it used to, especially here in Canada.

"It touches me personally because I'm a woman and not always treated equally," she said. "I don't think people realize what it was in history. I don't feel it here at all."

LINK: Guelph Mercury - full article