MARCH 8th, INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
With eyes wide closed
by Doina Sulea
(Femina XXI, Baia Mare, Romania)
It is said that a woman, in order to be happy, must know how to close her eyes.
Why? And how can she be happy with her eyes closed?
Questions without answer. Questions which usually fall in the "Trust and don't question!" category of the education that women receive, not only in Romania but in the majority of places around the world.
Happy in their ignorance? How can we be ignorant, if we know that we must close our eyes? And even know why we must close our eyes.
That's not ignorance, it's hiding from reality, mistification.
To pretend that we don't know, because, if we did, our self-respect would require that we react somehow. But we have an image to uphold, in the eyes of those around us. Because, in that case, to know and not to take action would mean that we don't respect ourselves enough, and then others would respect us all the less. It's better to be considered ignorant, then to be... not worthy of respect.
Too philosophical?
Let me translate with the most trivial example: my husband is cheating on me. If I admit that I am aware of it, I will then feel forced to act. Either to start a war against the traitor, or to attack the person who is invading my territory, or to retreat from the competition - get a divorce. Those are ways in which someone with enough self-respect will react.
But divorce is an unpleasant thing. I will find the people around me to be very wise and full of advice. Everyone will council me to fight for my marriage. By the way, I would remove the word "casnicie" (marriage) from the Romanian dictionary. Even though common sense tells me that it should come from "casa" (house) - to have a house together - my feeling is that it comes from "casna"/"cazna" (torture). But to come back to my point. Everyone, people who don't have anything to do with my heart and my life, will think themselves justified to judge and analyze me.
She didn't know how to hold on to her man, they will comment. And him? Why wouldn't it be just as much his duty to fight for me? If I had only been more... patient, more loving and more... bendable, we wouldn't be here right now.
Why wouldn't you admit that you know? It's easy, you've been educated that she who knows, and says she knows, must suffer the consequences. Which are not pleasant at all.
The society we live in, through its written and unwritten laws, sanctions those women who stray from the norm. Those who know and say so. Those who don't believe all that they are told, and who question. And it attacks especially those who act.
Who don't accept the norms, dogmas, traditions, or whatever the "Taliban" of patriarchy calls them.
And why would we women accept traditions, unwritten laws which weigh us down, and only us?
The government changes the written laws, in the name of collective interest, whenever it thinks appropriate.
Why wouldn't we change our laws - written and unwritten, whenever we think that we can make them better for ourselves?
Internationally, March 8th is not Mother's Day (as it's mainly known in Romania).
The mother = family = duty = sacrifice = worry = responsibility for others
Internationally March 8th is a Day of Women's Activism.
The day to celebrate those women to whose activism we owe the right to vote, the right to education, health care, contraception. Those who fought so that we, as women, would have the right to own property, the right to get a divorce. The right to choose and to say No!, when we decide that it's what's needed.
These rights are protected in written laws, the only ones that are compulsory. But no written law says that we must close our eyes.
Therefore, open your eyes, analyze, speak and speak out. And above all, act. And don't be afraid that you will be alone. It's contagious. It spreads. Especially today, on March 8th. It is the day of women who are fighting for their rights. And yours.
HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
Adapted after a resource offered by the Center for the Study of Women in Society
[
http://csws.uoregon.edu/resource/International%20Women's%20Day.pdf]
In many parts of the world, International Women's Day is a time of activism and advocacy for social change. The day has historically been one that brings women together in global political action and demonstration. That legacy continues despite some attempts to frame International Women's Day in individualistic terms, as a commercial holiday, or merely as an opportunity to give a woman a greeting card.
Below you will find a short history of Internationla Women's Day and a list of Internet links that provide information about the radical beginnings of this commemorative day and its connection to women's struggles for empowerment, social justice, and peace. Also learn about local and global events, organizing resources, and teaching tools. Celebrate International Women's Day by becoming involved-and spread the word to others.
In its various incarnations, International Women's Day has been in existence for more than 90 years.
* The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions.
* Women from clothing and textile factories staged one such protest on 8 March 1857 in New York City. The garment workers were protesting what they saw as very poor working conditions and low wages. The protesters were attacked and dispersed by police. These women established their first labor union in the same month two years later.
* On 8 March 1908, the New York City Social Democratic Women's Society sponsored a mass meeting on women's rights.
* In 1910 an international day to highlight women's suffrage and peace was agreed at a Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen.
* Inspired by an American commemoration of working women, the German socialist Klara Zetkin organized International Women's Day (IWD) in 1911. On March 19, socialists from Germany, Austria, Denmark and other European countries held strikes and marches. Russian revolutionary and feminist Aleksandra Kollontai, who helped organize the event, described it as "one seething trembling sea of women."
* As the annual event developed, it took on the cause of peace as well as women's rights. In 1915, Zetkin organized a demonstration in Bern, Switzerland, to urge the end of World War I. Women on both sides of the war turned out.
* Until 1917, IWD was celebrated on different days throughout the world.
* Eventually in 1917, 8 March was identified as 'International Women's Day' because on that day, in Russia, thousands of women left their homes and factories to protest the terrible food shortages, high prices, world war, and the increased suffering they had bitterly endured (this was the strike "for bread and peace", which merged with riots that erupted between March 8-12 and led to the "The February Revolution" that forced the Czar Nicholas II to abdicate).
* Among other relevant historic events, it commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (New York, 1911), where over 140 women lost their lives.
* In 1921, 8 March was declared the official global IWD when Bulgarian women attending the International Women's Secretariat of the Communist International motioned the day to be uniformly celebrated around the world. While IWD now occurs globally on 8 March, some countries celebrate International Women's Week, and the US celebrates International Women's Month.
* Demonstrations marking International Women's Day in Russia proved to be the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Following the October Revolution, Kollontai persuaded Lenin to make it an official holiday, and during the Soviet period "the heroic woman worker" continued to be celebrated.
* The day remains an official holiday in Russia (as well as in Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, and Ukraine), celebrated mostly as Mother's Day - with congratulations, cards, flowers and gifts for women from children, men, and other women.
* In the West, International Women's Day was commemorated during the 1910s and 1920s, but then dwindled. It was revived by the rise of feminism in the 1960s, but without its socialist associations. In 1975, which had been designated as International Women's Year, the United Nations gave official sanction to and began sponsoring International Women's Day.
* Today, various events around the world celebrate the social, political and cultural achievements of women.
IWD 2006
Some examples of events planned for this year:
* International Events: Global Women's Strike
A network with national coordinations in 11 countries and participating organisations in over 60 countries, demanding the return of military budgets to the community, beginning with women, the main carers of people and the planet.
http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/
* Global Events for the "Women Say No to War" Campaign
International Women's Day rally at the Iraq embassy in Washington, DC, USA, to support CodePink and an Iraqi women's delegation as they deliver 100,000 signatures on a Women's Call to Peace. A march to the White House will follow the rally. Similar events are being organized globally:
http://www.womensaynotowar.org/calendar.php
* Chile
More than 150 social movements, non-governmental organisations, development agencies, political parties and trade unions are organising a major political and cultural event in downtown Santiago on Mar. 8, in which female musicians from Chile as well as Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Brazil will perform, while president-elect Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first female president, will address the crowd.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32387
* Letter to the United Nations
A coalition of international women's organisations -- including more than 240 women from over 50 countries -- has castigated both U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the 191 member states for paying "lip service" to the cause of gender parity in the world body.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32398
* Statement and call from the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq
For centuries women have been struggling for their rights and for equality and liberation in all parts of the world. Major changes have been won, but nowhere do we have real equality, and in many parts of the world the oppression and exploitation of women are still striking. Iraq is one of those places. ... We call upon you to join with us this International Women's Day (8 March) to say No to religious law in Iraq and yes to equality and freedom.
http://www.equalityiniraq.com/english/2006/OWFIAbroad-8Mars230206.htm
* Corporate Watch: International Women's Day Highjacked by Big Business
IWD mustn't be reduced to a call for equal rights for women to earn fat cat pay. ...If your passion is for equality, then the focus of your struggle must be against the corporation itself and its concentrations of wealth and power.
http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=2172
Other 2006 events, news and details:
*
http://www.isis.aust.com/iwd/events.htm
International Women's Day All Events Guide (Australian site)
*
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=4336
IWD Events in The San Francisco Bay area
*
http://www.topix.net/holidays/international-womens-day
International Women's Day News
*
http://news.google.com/news?q=International+Women's+Day
Global IWD Events
IWD RESOURCES
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/iwd/actions_e.html
2006 Organizer's Tool Kit: "What can I do to celebrate International Women's Week?"
http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/womensday/index.asp
"Every year, 8 March is celebrated around the world as International Women's Day. We have planned a program of information and fun for your classroom to celebrate International Women's Day with a focus on women, peace and politics. Have a great learning experience! . . ."
http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/holidays/intlwomensday.html
A Children's Lesson: "Tomorrow is a school holiday for International Women's Day. Does anyone know why we commemorate International Women's Day? It is a day set aside to honor working women. I will tell you how it came to be, over 80 years ago. To do this, I will be reading a lot of the actual words of women who lived and worked in that long ago time. These are called "primary sources" -- and they are the most interesting because they were there . . ."
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY HISTORIES
http://www.isis.aust.com/iwd/stevens/
A History of International Women's Day in Words and Images.
"Over the years, International Women's Day (IWD) has taken to the streets, sparked off a revolution, met cosily at luncheons and concerts, rubbed shoulders with Premiers, Prime Ministers and Mayors, demonstrated at the doors of newspapers and welfare institutions, occupied empty houses intent on gaining shelter for homeless women and has ushered in reform legislation . . ."
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/women/womday97.htm
A Chronology by the United Nations: "International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development . . ."
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womensday1.html
Brief Narrative in Infoplease:
"International Women's Day, March 8th commemorates women's rights and peace. In its various incarnations, ranging from a communist holiday to a U.N.-sponsored event, International Women's Day has been celebrated for almost 90 years . . ."
http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=4008&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Brief Narrative by UNESCO:
"International Women's Day, formalized by the United Nations in 1977, not only reminds us about the victories of women, but also invites us to reflect upon the role and status of women in the world at large . . ."
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/iwd/doclist.htm
"What Were the Origins of International Women's Day, 1886-1920? Document List"
http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/interwomen.html
A History of International Women's Day: "We Want Bread and Roses Too" from Womankind (March 1972.)..."
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2004: NEWS AND PICTURES
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/03/110523.shtml
Independent Media Center's coverage of International Women's Day 2004
http://www.alertnet.org/printable.htm?URL=/thenews/photoalbum/1078833431.htm
Reuters photo album of IWD 2004 around the world
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/3542511.stm
BBC News pictures of IWD 2004 around the world
[
http://csws.uoregon.edu/resource/International%20Women's%20Day.pdf]
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2005
http://romania.indymedia.org/en/2005/03/704.shtml
compilation about IWD 2005 protests on Indymedia Romania
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Suggested reading on Ladyfest Romania site:
http://ladyfest-ro.pimienta.org/index-en.php?id=pages/resources.txt
Feminist resources from Direct Organizing workshop held at Ladyfest Timisoara 2005:
http://ladyfest-ro.proiectns.org/workshop/newagenda.htm
Texts from the Association for Women's Rights in Development (English, French and Spanish) - In addition to all our themed publications which cover the areas of Feminist Movements and Organizations, Women's Rights and Economic Change, Young Women and Leadership and Gender Equality and New Technologies, you will find journals, handbooks and materials on everything from women and HIV/AIDS to globalization and employment:
http://www.awid.org/publications/
