IWD (International Woman's Day)
- Thread starter Mr Giles
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WileyDairyGnome
Strong like an Amazon
What about International Mens Day? 🙁
EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't know we had one too, hehe. 😀
Well um, Happy Day, women! 😛
EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't know we had one too, hehe. 😀
Well um, Happy Day, women! 😛
sisterofmercy
Ray of Sunshine..
The theme for this year is 'Empower Women- End Hunger and Poverty' apparently. The ICRC is also calling for more to be done to help the mothers and wives of people who have disappeared while on military duty. Sounds like a nice idea, hopefully it will help people.
It's also a good day to think about the women in history who have helped to provide us with the freedom we enjoy today- people like the suffragettes, Thatcher, etc. (not that I like Thatcher in a political sense, but she did have quite an impact as a woman in the political field).
It's also a good day to think about the women in history who have helped to provide us with the freedom we enjoy today- people like the suffragettes, Thatcher, etc. (not that I like Thatcher in a political sense, but she did have quite an impact as a woman in the political field).
sisterofmercy
Ray of Sunshine..
Just an example of a woman who has made an impact on the world and led the way for others to do the same. I don't like her but she did make waves at least. I could have said someone like Florence Nightingale I suppose, Thatcher was the first one that came to mind.
My workplace makes a big thing out of it, so we had a bake sale (because the best way to mark IWD is by having the female staff in the kitchen baking on a work night!), raffles, bric a brac sales and so on. The best part was the gingerbread women somebody made, each with individual jelly tot bosoms!
IWD isn't that much of an established event in Britain, though, but it has become more visible in the last few years. The Soviet Union used to push it as an example of how Communism enabled women to take up paid work, so it wouldn't have been celebrated in the UK for that reason, but it's also usually within a couple of weeks of Mother's Day in this country so we're already into female appreciation mode and to be honest, there's no woman worthy of more celebration than your mother.
IWD isn't that much of an established event in Britain, though, but it has become more visible in the last few years. The Soviet Union used to push it as an example of how Communism enabled women to take up paid work, so it wouldn't have been celebrated in the UK for that reason, but it's also usually within a couple of weeks of Mother's Day in this country so we're already into female appreciation mode and to be honest, there's no woman worthy of more celebration than your mother.
This Year's Girl
Grateful grapefruit
International womens day is not about female appriciation. It's a day to acknowledge and discuss womens unequal situation in the world today and a way to make a change. Sure, I see it as a chance to celebrate the great examples of women I have around me and know of too, but mostly I try to make more people aware of discrimination, sexual oppression and domestic violence that is happening to women around the world today. That's not about focusing on the "negative" stuff (though it is horrible!), I think it's great that this kind of day exist, so more people can join the struggle for equality! :heart: But to make that happen we have to talk about the problems and the structural things.
I also think it's important to make this day not just about the white middle class women's issues like equal pay. It is SUPER IMPORTANT to talk about this (and change it!), but we must also see that this is a global thing and that women are not a group that is in only one way, things like class, age and etnicity makes our terms different too.
I also think it's important to make this day not just about the white middle class women's issues like equal pay. It is SUPER IMPORTANT to talk about this (and change it!), but we must also see that this is a global thing and that women are not a group that is in only one way, things like class, age and etnicity makes our terms different too.
Washburne
Protector of the key.
I'll be honest. I haven't done anything special today. If a day like today help the issue then great. I hope it does. Great post Miki. I do think that (too) many from both genders think it's about celebrating women, kind of like Mothers day. Nothing wrong with that. I love women. Most of them. 😉 I can sing their praise all year round (to a point). It's just not the point of today.
An interesting article about how that statistic is a myth lol: http://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/stop-that-feminist-viral-statistic-meme/
kittenpoker
Raising penguins in Guam
I am woman! Hear me roar!!!
I think this is a wonderful to have a day set apart to think about women's issues. 🙂
I think this is a wonderful to have a day set apart to think about women's issues. 🙂
Nothing really, I don't need a special day to think about various unequality issues or past heroic deeds or revelutionary women, I can think about those things any day. 🙂
But I do think it's nice to have a day in 'honor' of these things or whatever. It's a nice gesture.
But I do think it's nice to have a day in 'honor' of these things or whatever. It's a nice gesture.
Cast No Shadow
You are my world.
I hate stuff like this, it's never positive and I think it's generally unnecessary. All I've heard from it is people making silly jokes on Facebook.
When people quote that statistic about 1% of the world's property being owned by women, the figure they don't give is how much is owned by men- in other words, how much of the world's land or property is owned by human beings in total, as opposed to governments, corporations, companies, pension funds, charities and so on.
But I think this year I've been more aware of the worldwide issue because somebody I work with became a father for the second time, and his wife had some complications- to cut a long story short, the baby became stuck halfway out and had to be pushed back in so they could do an emergency c-section. There are a lot of places in the world where one or other or both wouldn't have survived.
I know some women do feel patronised by it, but at the same time Western women today have choices and opportunities that they wouldn't have had twenty or thirty years ago when it was still expected that most women aspired to marry well and have children. For somebody of my mother's generation, the aspiration was not to have to work- the idea of a woman finding fulfilment through her job (unless it was something like teaching or nursing) would have seemed very odd.
But I think this year I've been more aware of the worldwide issue because somebody I work with became a father for the second time, and his wife had some complications- to cut a long story short, the baby became stuck halfway out and had to be pushed back in so they could do an emergency c-section. There are a lot of places in the world where one or other or both wouldn't have survived.
I know some women do feel patronised by it, but at the same time Western women today have choices and opportunities that they wouldn't have had twenty or thirty years ago when it was still expected that most women aspired to marry well and have children. For somebody of my mother's generation, the aspiration was not to have to work- the idea of a woman finding fulfilment through her job (unless it was something like teaching or nursing) would have seemed very odd.