Showing posts with label International Women's Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label International Women's Day. Show all posts

March 8 - International Women's Day

Posted on March 8, 2021


This is an update of my post published on March 8, 2010:




This date is commemorated at the United Nations and is a national holiday in many countries. It is a day to honor women in our lives, to honor women who have struggled in the past for equality and peace, and to rededicate to those causes.



In Russia and many other countries, this is a day when men give flowers, chocolates, and other small gifts to the women in their family. In Italy women are traditionally given yellow mimosas. In Montevideo a group of female drummers perform in the streets each year.

International Women's Day celebrations in Cameroon (above)
and India (below).


The holiday began in 1909 in the U.S. and came to be associated with honoring victims of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. After a while interest in (and even knowledge of) IWD dwindled in America, but it became more commonly celebrated in former Soviet countries. This is because striking women on this date in 1917 ended up being one key to the February Revolution that overthrew Czar Nicholas II, and feminist Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Lenin to make it an official holiday in the Soviet Union.

Did that give you pause? An event in early March led to a February Revolution?

At the time, Russia was still using the Julian calendar, so March 8, 1917, in most of the world was February 23, 1917, in Russia.




Even though International Women's Day celebrations aren't super common in the U.S., the entire month of March became known as Women's History Month here.



Women in World History.com has biographies of female heroes and rulers from around the world. For example, do you know about the Trung sisters from Vietnam, Eleanor of Aquitaine (France), or Nzinga Mbande (aka Ann Zingha) from Angola?



My heroes tend to be scientists, and a website called “4000 Years of Women in Science” has a large selection of biographies of women scientists.







Create a paper Solidarity “Quilt.”



Learn about some tools that were important for many women, all over the world, for much of history.One thing that has been touted as helping women achieve rights and a decent standard of living is the practice of microloans. This means making very small loans to people in third world countries to enable them to become entrepreneurs and—with hard work—lift themselves out of poverty. Go to Kiva to learn more about this and maybe to participate!


(Monday of the first full week of March)







Commonwealth Day in Tuvalu
(Second Monday in March)







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March 8 - Day for Women's Rights and International Peace

Posted on March 8, 2019


The thing about worldwide or international holidays is that they're not called the same thing in all nations (even allowing for translation), let alone not being celebrated in the same way. Today's a great example:

The United Nations has established March 8 as International Women's Day (see link below, in the "Also on this date" section). A lot of nations celebrate the day as Mother's Day on March 8 - including Belarus, Bulgaria, Burundi, Burkina Faso, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, just to name the "B"s. I think that's a bit unfair, since even though we all have a mother to honor (although not all of our mothers are alive or even known to us) - BUT not all women are mothers! And I think that all women should be honored on Women's Day!


In some places International Women's Day is not a day of celebration. Instead, it's a day of protest! Some nations or populations agitate for women's rights on Women's Day.

I think it's pretty obvious - given the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, and the renewed call for the ERA in the United States - that we need a Day for Women's Rights and International Peace more than ever before!

Here are some ways in which women are repressed around the world:

In Saudi Arabia, all women and girls must have a male guardian - typically a father, brother, husband, or uncle - and women need their guardian's permission in order to travel, get married, get divorced, enroll in a school, open a bank account, get elective surgery, or work outside of the home.

In Saudi Arabia, the ban on women driving was finally lifted in 2018!

In some South Asian nations, acid attacks on women (in which sulfuric or nitric acid is thrown at a woman's face with the intent to disfigure or maim or even blind her) has become more and more common, when a woman turns down romantic advances, or seeks romance, or even wears her veil "too loosely." (Acid attacks also victimize many men.)

In Cameroon and other nations, many girls entering puberty are subjected to breast ironing, and female genital mutilation is distressingly common in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. These practices are cruel and painful and end up causing the victims to have a variety of problems as they grow up and try to start families.


In Sudan women are arrested for such things as exposing their hair, wearing pants or trousers, or riding in a car with someone of the opposite sex. 


In some Latin American countries, such a the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, many young girls are forced to marry older men.

Honduras outlawed child marriage in 2017.

Before that, about one-fourth of all girls were
married before they turned 18. 


I could go on, because women and girls face problems such as lower pay, less access to education, violence, and harassment, but I think you get the idea. We must all - men and women, boys and girls, stand together to reduce and eliminate the oppression of women and girls!!

Malala has become one of the most famous
Pakistani citizens in the world because of her
pro-female-education activism.



















(Friday of the first full week of March)



 

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