There’s a fantastic array of blog postings to mark the 100th International Women’s Day today, and twitter is abuzz with stories, links and random celebrations of people’s mothers (funny to think that Clara Zetkin, who is credited with coming up with the idea for an International Women’s Day, would not understand that sentence at all). A selection: the Guardian has a great feature on women’s voices from around the world. The strongest message coming from that is one of hope and things getting better. Duncan Green has a wonk’s guide to IWD, with links to some interesting looking research on how women’s movements have been successful in making some of these changes for the better actually happen, in South Africa and the Middle East. And this, slightly less optimistic piece from Canada’s Globe and Mail is about how far many of us have to go.
For those in search of numbers, there’s some here, also from the Guardian on the gender pay gap, and an analysis from Tim Harford on why it persists (though it only really applies to professional women). More numbers from a survey of UK women, with the slightly depressing fact that only one in five consider themselves to be feminists. I’m with Rebecca West on that one :
I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
(though perhaps I do know what feminism is – at least, my daughter told me that it’s about wanting things to be fair, which will do for me)
And for those who like their politics with a bit of glamour, here’s James Bond in a frock
What’s so inspiring though is just how much there is. It used to be that no one in the UK really registered International Women’s Day – I remember many conversations with NGO colleagues when I worked at Action Aid (who also have some great stuff on their website), bemoaning the fact that no one here cared very much about the day, while our colleagues around the world were gearing up for national holidays and events to mark the occasion. According to my flower importer friend, in Europe IWD is second only to Valentine’s Day in terms of demand for roses.
Long may it last. And a very happy International Women’s Day to you all.
