International Women's Day 2012

Hello My Friends,

It's been too long.  I hope all is well in your worlds.

I know that International Women's Day was yesterday, but I was still thinking about what I should write then so I'm posting this a little late this year.   I'm not really going to get on a soapbox this time (at least not too big a soapbox) because I don't think there's any point in re-hashing the same kind of stuff we've talked about in the recent past.   I am however going to ask a question that was asked last year and more than once again on March 8th: Do we still need an International Women's Day?

Some people say yes, others say no.

I say yes, but I'm always open to other opinions so when people scoff and say things like 'when are we going to have an International Men's Day?' I listen to them.  And I think about why they might be asking this.  And I think about why they might think we don't need an International Women's Day anymore.

Obviously these are people who live in North America so there's that: women here legally have equal rights.  We do get to vote and own land and more of us get post-secondary educations than men these days.  We can also (kind of) support ourselves; at least some of us can.  We still get paid a lot less (29% less by most accounts), but the scoffers have rationalizations for that: women are typically the lower earners in 'traditional nuclear' families so when someone has to take time off for childcare, it makes more fiscal sense for the woman to do so.   Extrapolate that, and since women take time off to actually have children and nurture them, it stands to reason that we're not as solid an investment as men because we could get pregnant or have a sick child at any time.   [Sarcasm - just in case you didn't notice.]

Regardless of the pay issue, why else might we still need an International Women's day?  Well, the obvious answer is that not all women have equal rights.   There are many places in the world where women can't vote and they can't own property.   And frankly, those are the least of their worries.  This post is not about atrocities, but if you've ever read any of my previous posts, you are probably aware of some of them.  There are women and girls all over the world who live in fear every day simply because of the fact that they are female.

Another troubling issue:  there are many places in the world where selective abortion is being practiced to the extent that it is changing the societal makeup of the country so that more boy babies are being born.  If you extrapolate that, where is that going to leave the young women in 13 - 18 years?   I'll let you think about that one.  If abortion based on the gender of your fetus isn't sexist, I don't know what is.

Ergo, I think I'm going to stick with my opinion that we still need an International Women's Day; at least internationally.  The fact that something isn't happening in your backyard doesn't mean it's not happening at all.

So let's turn our attention back to the west: a bit more of a conundrum here because of the whole having the same legal rights thing.   So I'm going to ask some more questions (because I'm in a questioning mood) to which I don't have easy answers; maybe some of you will.

How many women do you know who have ever, in any way, experienced some form of physical abuse from a partner?  How many do you think have but wouldn't admit it?   Now ask yourself how many men?

How many times have you heard men jokingly complain that women 'travel in packs' when they're out at night so that it's difficult to approach just one?  And how many men know that we 'travel in packs' for safety?  We wouldn't do this if we weren't afraid.  How many men do you think travel in packs for safety?  How many do you think promise each other not to leave without any of the rest?  We do this because we're afraid of being raped and/or killed, and then sometimes blamed for it because we were drunk or dressed provocatively.

We don't talk about it, we don't say it out loud, we just know it. We're all trained from a young age not to get in a car with a stranger offering us candy, and we're all trained not to put ourselves in situations where we'll be at greater risk.

Too extreme you say?  Perhaps, but perhaps not.

If you're a woman you know exactly what I'm talking about.  We live in a world where we have to take precautions because even though no one says it out loud, we live in fear.  People will scoff at this and say 'everyone has to take precautions, that's just common sense.'  But do my brothers who are at least six inches taller and about 100 pounds heavier than I am have to take the same precautions I do?  No.  They never have and I doubt they ever will.

I'm not suggesting that men don't also have fears, and that some men may also live in the same type of fear that we do, but not the majority of them, and not all the time.

So I say we will need an International Women's Day until self-determination is no longer in question and we no longer live in fear.  Any of us.

Thanks for tuning in.  Drive safe!
Lesle