International Women’s Day has been celebrated since 1908, this being the 100th year celebration.
IWD has become an internationally recognize day of celebration for women, campaigning for change globally. I have sat here for four days trying to write a blog on International Women’s Day. I have hit a writer’s block, not your traditional writer’s block, a writer’s blog block.
International Women’s Day appeared to come and go within my own community with barely a whisper in the media here in Vancouver. I did find one article in the Canadian Press, http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4Lt27OFrzdDvdURAXCgBqDXIkhA , and it’s focus was on Kandahar. According to the official IWD site, www.internationalwomensday.com, there were 626 IWD events spanning 52 countries.
There were events in Asia, in Iran, Bangladesh, Tehran, Iraq, Afghan, South Africa, Brazil, Madagscar…and even with Condaleeza Rice and The First Lady, Laura Bush. We did have a rally in Vancouver, and there was a First Nations event with The Assembly of Chiefs in Manitoba.
I tried to have my own event, inviting a group of women I know and adore to come to my home and in lieu of food, or wine, to donate and set up our own social capital. Unfortunately, there was very little response from my own group of incredible women friends. It made me realize that as a community of abundance, do we really understand what celebrating 100 years for this event really means?
IWD began in 1908, when 15, 000 women marched in New York city demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910, in Copenhagen, there became global awareness of International Women’s Day. These 100 women from 17 countries agreed to ‘assist in universal suffrage of women’. In 1911 more than a million women and men attended IWD rallies around the world.
In 1917, “On the last Sunday of February, Russian women began a strike for “bread and peace” in response to the death over 2 million Russian soldiers in war. Opposed by political leaders the women continued to strike until four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. The date the women’s strike commenced was Sunday 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia. This day on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere was 8 March.”
According to IWD’s site, “The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that ‘all the battles have been won for women’ while many feminists from the 1970’s know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.”
And yet, here, 100 years later, we have the right to vote, we have women as CEO’s, we have women in positions of decision making and even using the US election as an example, we have, for the first time, a women as a front runner for President.
According to the Worldwide Guide to Women In Leadership, http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/, the only two countries that have not had a female member of government are Monaco and Sauid Arabia.
Have we really made progress? Ironically, the key critic of Hillary Clinton’s campaign happens to be a female writer from the New York Times. What does that say? That we’ve come so far as to be critical of each other without gender being an issue, or that behind that we can’t even stand together in unison under such circumstances?
So what does International Women’s Day mean? It really depends on your perspective and where in the world you happen to be living. If you are in Bangladesh it is about having the right to vote, about having the freeom of choice. If you are Kenya, it is about being kept safe from rape, from losing your home, from losing your life. If you are in the United States or Canada, it is about increasing the percentage of women in leadership far beyond the current statistic of 4.2%.
Or, perhaps, you are a mom and it is about being able to call upon your friend to help you with your children so you can pop out to get milk.
It really comes down to women helping women; men supporting women and the fundamental rights of humanity which are “freedom, justice and peace” (www.un.org)
Do we have that? Some of us, absolutely; some of us, not even close. International Women’s Day has celebrated 100 years March 8th, 2008 and it is celebrated around the world to mark the growth and development of achieving universal suffrage for women as well as profiling those countries and communities who are still, abhorantly, abusing women physically, mentally and emotionally.
The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because in the degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source. ~Lucretia Mott
Let’s stop poisoning…
