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International Women's Day
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Well, International Woman's Day is this Friday on the 8th March, so I thought I'd sprout a thread where we could remember some of the inspirational women in history or even still about, as seems to be a thesite.org tradition 
.
As a side note, could we avoid political discussion about international men's day or whatever, as they've been a cause of arguments before. Sure you can start a new thread in P&D
(there is an international men's day, for the record).
So, on Friday I'll be paying homage to - my mum.
.As a side note, could we avoid political discussion about international men's day or whatever, as they've been a cause of arguments before. Sure you can start a new thread in P&D
(there is an international men's day, for the record).So, on Friday I'll be paying homage to - my mum.
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bloody feminists
i will quote you what I said a year ago in the thread I've linked to in my first post in this thread:
To a certain extent I can relate to those who say that having a women's day perpetuates marginalisation, but to a greater extent I think that it serves as a reminder that we - as feminists - can't relax just yet. There are still barriers, and the barriers that have already been broken down should be raved about. Why on earth not?
As for what I do, well not as much as I could, I'm sure. Every 8th of March I read some inspiring feminist literature, it really fires me up and gets me thinking. Of course, I also do that on the 10th of May and the 21st of August and many other days of the year. But yeah, for me the essence of IWD is that it's an opportunity for taking stock and renewing efforts. Looking at how far we've come and at what still needs to be addressed. It's also important to talk. Talking about issues that are important to women (both as a sex and as over half of society) is so important, and it's so easy to be slapped down by snide comments about "feminazis" but who gives a fuck? We're coming full circle to being ashamed of feminism these days and it makes me feel desperate. I attended a writing class about two years ago and at the beginning we all said "I am/am not a feminist because..." and completed the sentence with our own views. There were plenty of answers with suffixes including "hairy legs", "bra burning" etc etc. Narrow-minded and archaic. Feminists at large have changed along with the world, the former appropriately and the latter for the better.
My mother saved a newspaper which was printed on IWD in 1994. The entire paper was taken over for the day by all of the female staff who worked on it. It was edited by a woman and full of news, features, sports and business - by and about women, and concerning women's issues. If memory serves there was also a "men's page". That speaks to me. Apparently it was a huge success and I just love the idea.
It seems to me that if anything, that's what IWD is about, celebrating womanhood in your own environment, on your own terms, proving what can be done when women get equal opportunity to run the show. Celebrate it, don't celebrate it... but don't rain on the celebrations of people who do want to honour and shout about womankind - past and present :thumb:
Oh and I can trump you MoK with my 2006 thread (which dissolved into Yerascrote and z- talking about riding Maggie Thatcher... :yuck:) about this wonderful day. Oh, that was where I also dutifully informed that any whingers could sit back down because the entirity of June is apparently men's month. Start planning your celebrations if you will!
Well yeah but there's no actual way to celebrate, thereby rendering this (and every other of it's kind, including National Men's Day etc.) completely pointless. As for remembering, it's not like this stuff is shoved in your face. You either know what they did to remember it or you don't, and if you do you don't need a special day/week set aside for you to mull it over.
http://yorkuk.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10055138746&ref=mf
going on a bar crawl with 'reclaim the f word' on them. I don't know if I'll go, intimidated by all the women :nervous:
SG - typically if women are doing exactly the same job at least from what I've studied they in the UK get aid the same. But there still exists what are called 'glass ceilings' all over the shop. Even if a man and a woman are doing the same jobs for the same company but in different sections (one example of this in the NHS was nurses and something else, but I can't remember) the 'female' job gets paid much less. Look at directors of company's. Finance directors, operations directors get paid tonnes more than human resources directors. Is it any less demanding? Of course not. No less skill needed, no less experience - it's just typically more of a 'female' role. And women encounter this all the time. They put in the effort, they do the work and they come to an interview for a senior management position and get bumped for a guy. A lot of this is down to preconceptions that women are naturally 'sociable' whereas guys are naturally 'hardcore business' types, which is daft really. But that's for a whole other thread.
I did put the disclaimer in my first post intentionally to stop people kicking off. Kiezo - what's wrong with 11th November? It's all the same kind of thing really.
invented the miniskirt.
all hail to her.
The end one of the greatest atrocities in recent times and remembering the achievements of women are not the same thing.
Besides, I wasn't 'kicking off'. Merely registering my dislike for days that don't actually mean/do anything.
Wasn't aiming the 'kicking off' comment at you, just in general - look what happened to the thread last year. And I meant the same thing in the sense of remembrance - you don't 'do' anything, just remember what others have sacrificed or fought for so we can enjoy the lives we live today. 11th November is typically seen as a remembrance ceremony for people who have lost their lives in all conflicts, 8th march is seen as a remembrance day / celebration of all women who have pushed forward a different kind of boundary.
I think it's more about people's attitudes than anything else, which in turn result in women being paid less, being less likely to be taken seriously in certain roles, and being less likely to be voted into office. I think that genuinely sexist formal policies are relatively few and far between.
I remember hearing about a study they did in Sweden in the 80s. They researchers wrote a scientific research paper on something or other, and asked people to mark it out of 100 based on how good it was. When the "authors" name was a man, men gave it an average of 75% and women an average of 65%. When the "authors" name was a women, both men and women gave it an average of 50%. So it seems that at least in that study, both sexes tend to underestimate women in certain roles. Hopefully such attitude have moved on since then, but something tells me they haven't gone as far as we would hope.
That's why I was fairly sure that Obama would beat Clinton in the nominations in America if it came down to their fellow black people/women voting patterns. Basic maths would tell you that if Obama got more of the black vote (compared to the average that voted for him), and Clinton got most of the women's vote as people predicted, then if it was fairly even among the rest, then Clinton would be far ahead. But like I said, I think that women are just as likely as men to underestimate other women, and so I suspect that Clinton got less of the women's vote than Obama got of the black vote. I think being female still counts against you in so many areas, including areas where women are the one's judging.
the ball and chain can cook me a special meal for that one
i'd get my mummy some flowers or something, but just had some for mothers day, will see how they get on this week, if they die i shall replace.
thumbs up for chicks
I wasn't around last year so I can't remember the thread :razz: The 11th of November is seen as more... I don't know. Remembrance Day is better compared to what you'd do at a funeral. You don't strictly *do* anything, except reflect and be thankful for those who laid down their lives for you en mass. A whole load of people's lives in this country were directly affected through the death and suffering of those who fought - National Womans Day just seems to pale in significance.
When pretty much all history that we're taught and exposed to is written from male white perspectives, I think its useful and positive - in fact more than that, to have something devoted to what women have actually achieved.
Things like international womens day or black history week etc SHOULDNT be necessary but they are
no, not them. They dont have a man so theyre not proper women!
I loved the fact that so many women were listed in this thread. It's just scared that it was hijacked by people who throw their toys out of the pram as they cannot face the fact that women's achievements have been less credited than men.
True true
And I shall be celebrating it, by rallying in London against violence against women and children and society & the governments shitty attitudes towards it, especially rape.
I am not afraid to call myself a feminist and I feel sad when women say they believe in equality, but not feminism. :rolleyes:
Just because it doesn't mean anything for you really doesn't mean it's the same for other people. IWD is a massive day for women in various communities around the world, particularly in the Eastern World. If you want to dislike that, well, it's your loss tbh.
I cannot agree more.
Although I would be happier to see a women's history week, rather than just one day and black history and women's history (herstory) taught in school curriculums.
Ways in which women are discriminated against in the UK
- Gender pay gap
- Only one in twenty rapes reported to the police leads to conviction and three quartres of local authorities have no services for survivors of rape.
- An Amnesty International survey done in the UK said that one in four (one in three? I can't remember) people who were interviewed said that if a woman was drunk, dressed in revealing clothes or flirtatious, then she is partially, if not fully responsible for being raped.
(Need to head off soon, so will probably add more later)
Ways in which women are discriminated in other countries
- Rape as a weapon of war
- female genital mutilation
- Honour killings
- Peruvian women being forced to marry their rapist
- Domestic violence being acceptable in many cultures
- Women being denied an education in some countries
- Sexual abuse and rape for women in prison
- Tibetan women being steralised (according to their NGO website)
Heck... There is a man sitting on death row in Afghanistan this moment, for downloading a document on Islam and the treatment of women to discuss in his class.
It would take days to discuss how women are oppressed in different cultures and that is before even considering women who suffer further because of their skin colour, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.
International Women's Day is global. It is about acknowledging women all over the world and in my view, as a feminist, I believe that we should alos be working with and supporting NGOs for women's rights abroad, as well as focussing on our own cultural sexism.
So I'll also be thinking about Florence Nightingale who stands out amongst all humanity and not just women as a symbol of care and compassion for others - for being kind to all who need kindness regardless of their class.
http://victorianweb.org/history/crimea/filomena.html
is the gender pay gap something thats still relevant in todays society? i think men or women in similar roles will get similar pay, i think it must be very rare that women get paid less simply for paying a woman?
as for the rape case, its a shocking statistic that i've seen used but is it REALLY discrimination against women? im sure its not a case of them discounting the woman just because they are female.
as for the stuff mentioned about overseas, fair enough its not right, but i dont think its discrimination against women, its a cultural thing, albeit a fucked up cultural thing but i dont see the majority of it as discrimination against women.
maybe im wrong, and dont want to detract from the main theme of this thread, cos i'm all for it if it matters to some people, maybe its something for politics and debate. its just some thoughts of mine, doesnt make me wrong/anti-feminine/kicking off/bad bad man putting women down.
:thumb: