International Women's Day.
Happy International Women's Day. We need it now as much as we did when it was first celebrated 97 years ago. A few interesting facts:
A meeting of the Second Socialist International in 1910 established 'an international day to celebrate women's rights'. The first International Women's Day was celebrated on March 19, 1911. The date was chosen to continue the tradition of marches and meetings held by New York textile workers on or around March 8 dating as far back as 1857.
In 1917, millions of Russian women began a strike on March 8 'for bread and peace' and forced the abdication of the Czar - not to mention forced the provisional government to grant women the right to vote. The UN later declared March 8 an official International Women's Day.
Shortly after the first International Women's Day, on March 25, 1911, 148 textile workers - mostly women - were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. We remember them on this day as we remember the many women who fought for our right to counted as equals, as human beings.
Today, women have conquered almost every walk of life. We have women business leaders. We have women astronauts. We even have a women running for the US presidency. It sounds good doesn't it? On the other hand, the glass ceiling is still strong. Commercials are telling us to raise our daughters are princesses. I'd rather raise them in the real world as strong girls to become strong women who can punch a hole in that damned ceiling.
And the world has never had more poor women. The world has never had as many slaves as now. A conservative estimate is that 21 million people are effectively slaves - and that some 70% of them are women, held as prostitutes or forced labourers.
The abysmal working conditions that led to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire were no better than what can be found in factories around the third world today: The factories that produce the cheap t-shirts, toys and trainers we buy with the money we earn as Strong Professional Women.
There is so much more to say. That female foetuses are being aborted in the millions in India because a girl's life is worth nothing - and that the shortage of marriageable girls is so acute that infants are sold into forced marriages. That the Chinese custom of keeping concubines is making a strong return leaving millions of Chinese women and girls to survive as glorified prostitutes. That the most current estimate of forced prostitution in wealthy and oh-so-smug Western Europe is that some four millions African, Asian and Eastern European women are kept as sex slaves. That one in three South African women will be raped at some point in their life - and that the number is one in five for US women. That 20% of US women have little or no access to proper medical care or reproductive measures. Well, the Christian Right might have a lot to say about that, but we all know what it means for the 14-year-old girl who was raped by her uncle. And so on and so on and so on.
So happy International Women's Day. May we one day not need it.
A meeting of the Second Socialist International in 1910 established 'an international day to celebrate women's rights'. The first International Women's Day was celebrated on March 19, 1911. The date was chosen to continue the tradition of marches and meetings held by New York textile workers on or around March 8 dating as far back as 1857.
In 1917, millions of Russian women began a strike on March 8 'for bread and peace' and forced the abdication of the Czar - not to mention forced the provisional government to grant women the right to vote. The UN later declared March 8 an official International Women's Day.
Shortly after the first International Women's Day, on March 25, 1911, 148 textile workers - mostly women - were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. We remember them on this day as we remember the many women who fought for our right to counted as equals, as human beings.
Today, women have conquered almost every walk of life. We have women business leaders. We have women astronauts. We even have a women running for the US presidency. It sounds good doesn't it? On the other hand, the glass ceiling is still strong. Commercials are telling us to raise our daughters are princesses. I'd rather raise them in the real world as strong girls to become strong women who can punch a hole in that damned ceiling.
And the world has never had more poor women. The world has never had as many slaves as now. A conservative estimate is that 21 million people are effectively slaves - and that some 70% of them are women, held as prostitutes or forced labourers.
The abysmal working conditions that led to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire were no better than what can be found in factories around the third world today: The factories that produce the cheap t-shirts, toys and trainers we buy with the money we earn as Strong Professional Women.
There is so much more to say. That female foetuses are being aborted in the millions in India because a girl's life is worth nothing - and that the shortage of marriageable girls is so acute that infants are sold into forced marriages. That the Chinese custom of keeping concubines is making a strong return leaving millions of Chinese women and girls to survive as glorified prostitutes. That the most current estimate of forced prostitution in wealthy and oh-so-smug Western Europe is that some four millions African, Asian and Eastern European women are kept as sex slaves. That one in three South African women will be raped at some point in their life - and that the number is one in five for US women. That 20% of US women have little or no access to proper medical care or reproductive measures. Well, the Christian Right might have a lot to say about that, but we all know what it means for the 14-year-old girl who was raped by her uncle. And so on and so on and so on.
So happy International Women's Day. May we one day not need it.