International Women's Day celebrated it's 100th Anniversary on 8 March 2011. The very first day was celebrated on the 19th of March 1911. My comments will be sort of in the middle of these two dates.
Since it was first celebrated Western women have gained many rights: voting rights, rights around the institution of marriage, employment rights, reproduction rights.
Many of these changes have occurred in the last fifty years. In the 1960's working women were expected to leave their employment when they became pregnant. In the 1970's when I had my children, women in Canada received eight weeks unemployment insurance benefits and if they were lucky three months off work. Now, both men and women are able to take paid time from work to celebrate the birth of children and bond with them.
"When biology no longer determines destiny, any destiny becomes possible." - Margaret Wente
"If you are a [Western] woman reading this newspaper today, you are singularly blessed. You belong to the freest, most educated, and most affluent group of women in all of human history." - Margaret Wente, Globe And Mail, March 8, 2011.
There is no doubt that women have much to celebrate. However, let us not forget that women in the 'developing' world are not as lucky as we are. And, let's not forget that, even in the western world, many crimes are centered on women; Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse.
We need to celebrate - yes. But, there is still much work to be done.
In the same copy of the Globe And Mail referenced above, Stephanie Nolen tells the following story.
" Two weeks ago, in India's rural province of Rajasthan, I met low-caste girls whose mothers had defied their fathers to insist they go to school. The girls had turned up on the dot of 9 a.m., their worn uniforms well pressed, their hair slicked down. But, they sat alone and in the dark, because they were too short to reach up and open the shutters, and their teachers had not come - because only women deign to teach in a low-caste girls school, and the teachers can't bear the sexual harassment they face when they take public transport, which is all they can afford, to get to work. The girls sat in quiet rows with their books open, trying to sound out words, lips working, fingers sliding along the tattered pages.
There is a universality to sexual harassment, to sexual violence, to the struggle for reproductive rights, and to the more quotidian question of how to work and care for children and older family members. Women in the developed world see this."
The issues in the developing world for women and girls are far more intense.
One! International tries to make a difference for women and girls. The girls are encouraged to attend the schools in the same way the boys are. The major reason One! provides care for pre-school children, is to enable the girls to attend school, and enable the mothers in the family to work. One! also hires the older girls and mothers to do various tasks around the school. In this way they learn work skills.
We hope that "our" girls will pass on to their children, a love of education and a belief that there are options for them beyond housekeeping and motherhood.
We believe that education is the key to change.
We hope that there will be a International Women's Day in the future that is truly international.
Since it was first celebrated Western women have gained many rights: voting rights, rights around the institution of marriage, employment rights, reproduction rights.
Many of these changes have occurred in the last fifty years. In the 1960's working women were expected to leave their employment when they became pregnant. In the 1970's when I had my children, women in Canada received eight weeks unemployment insurance benefits and if they were lucky three months off work. Now, both men and women are able to take paid time from work to celebrate the birth of children and bond with them.
"When biology no longer determines destiny, any destiny becomes possible." - Margaret Wente
"If you are a [Western] woman reading this newspaper today, you are singularly blessed. You belong to the freest, most educated, and most affluent group of women in all of human history." - Margaret Wente, Globe And Mail, March 8, 2011.
There is no doubt that women have much to celebrate. However, let us not forget that women in the 'developing' world are not as lucky as we are. And, let's not forget that, even in the western world, many crimes are centered on women; Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse.
We need to celebrate - yes. But, there is still much work to be done.
In the same copy of the Globe And Mail referenced above, Stephanie Nolen tells the following story.
" Two weeks ago, in India's rural province of Rajasthan, I met low-caste girls whose mothers had defied their fathers to insist they go to school. The girls had turned up on the dot of 9 a.m., their worn uniforms well pressed, their hair slicked down. But, they sat alone and in the dark, because they were too short to reach up and open the shutters, and their teachers had not come - because only women deign to teach in a low-caste girls school, and the teachers can't bear the sexual harassment they face when they take public transport, which is all they can afford, to get to work. The girls sat in quiet rows with their books open, trying to sound out words, lips working, fingers sliding along the tattered pages.
There is a universality to sexual harassment, to sexual violence, to the struggle for reproductive rights, and to the more quotidian question of how to work and care for children and older family members. Women in the developed world see this."
The issues in the developing world for women and girls are far more intense.
One! International tries to make a difference for women and girls. The girls are encouraged to attend the schools in the same way the boys are. The major reason One! provides care for pre-school children, is to enable the girls to attend school, and enable the mothers in the family to work. One! also hires the older girls and mothers to do various tasks around the school. In this way they learn work skills.
We hope that "our" girls will pass on to their children, a love of education and a belief that there are options for them beyond housekeeping and motherhood.
We believe that education is the key to change.
We hope that there will be a International Women's Day in the future that is truly international.
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