QUEBEC — Thousands of Quebecers jumped the gun on International Women's Day events by marching to Premier Jean Charest's office Sunday to protest government policies they say are hurting women and sending families into poverty.

"On social issues, the government is backwards and all the changes women have made for decades are threatened today," said Jennie Skene, president of the Quebec Federation of Nurses.

She was among several prominent Quebec labour leaders who led a demonstration that snaked along downtown streets to the premier's office.

A sea of union signs were hoisted by several thousand women and men as loudspeakers played French music and a marching contingent of drummers revved the crowd.

The rally took place a day before communities around the world mark International Women's Day.

Busloads of protesters arrived from Trois-Rivieres, Suroit and other municipalities. Smaller protests also took place in the Eastern Townships and Gaspe.

Residents in Quebec City and other communities across the country will hold rallies on Monday.

Participants in Montreal said they felt compelled to protest Charest government policies that raised day-care fees by 40 per cent, permitted contracting out of services and failed to adequately tackle poverty.

With the increase, provincially run day-care fees increased to $7 a day from $5 a day.

"There is a movement of protest now in Quebec and today is part of that movement against the new policies of the Charest government," said Danielle Hebert, co-ordinator of the Quebec Women's Federation.

While women have made many advances over the past 30 years, Charest said his government will continue to work to fight poverty facing female-headed families and domestic violence.

"Each advance on the road to equality - in addition to giving women access to life's best conditions - represents a victory for the entire Quebec society," the premier said in a news release.

Sunday's protest, which organizers said attracted 10,000 people, follows several broader union rallies last fall and is a precursor to several more protests planned in the coming months.

"It's the whole social movement in Quebec coming together to denounce Charest," said Barbara Legault, a spokeswoman for the federation.

She said Quebec women don't support the government's pledge to reduce taxes if it forces the gutting of social services.

"I think the priority is clearly on fighting poverty and not impoverishing the middle class," she said.

"Lowering the taxes has proven not to increase the wealth and the well-being of the middle class, either. I don't think this is what the women workers want."

Traffic along Montreal's main downtown streets was disrupted for a couple of hours while Sunday shoppers stopped to take in the party-like atmosphere.

Cornelia Brandt, a German teacher living in Montreal, said she supports this type of rally even though she's not sure how much it achieves.

"The Quebec government is cutting services that women need," she said as the throng of protesters passed by.

Among the protesters were parents pushing strollers, a woman dressed in a blue burka to protest the plight of Afghani women and a group of gay activists known as the Pink Panthers.

Members sported pink balaclavas to symbolically shield their faces because homosexual struggles are never seen even though gay people are everywhere, said Andrea Langlois.

Bernadette Diochon, 68, said she had to join the march in an attempt to maintain hard-fought gains on issues like alimony that were won over years of struggle.

She hoped the government would listen to the concerns raised or risk losing office in four years.

But she conceded that few protesters likely voted for the Liberals in last April's provincial election.

"I think most of them voted for the other side," she said of the left-leaning Parti Quebecois.