It's a woman's world...

Yesterday, March 8, 2007 was International Women's Day- I accepted best wishes, albeit in a somewhat befuddled manner, from a friend and a cousin. I was completely unaware of the existence of such a day, and I am still very amused about it. According to the timeline on their website, this day has been observed since the beginning of the 20th century! I salute the women of that era right up to the present, who have fought racism, sexism and disenfranchisement with unshakable conviction, and who are the reason we as a society can take so many rights for granted. If it were not for the likes of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, I, like my granddaddy once told me he did, would have had to walk out of my way to the 'colored' diner to be served my morning coffee and donut. If not for the strong women who marched out in protest to demand that we be recognized as thinking citizens with an equal right to direct the future of a nation, women like Margaret Thatcher would not be able to rise to positions of power. If not for the feminist bra-burners of the 60s, women in the workplace would still be subject to humiliation and second-rate pay and status, and we would have never seen the day that name-brand corporations like eBay and Xerox are led by women, as they are today.

At the same time, my appreciation for and gratitude to those visionaries was dimmed by the knowledge that in 2007 there is still need for an International Women's Day. Today there is an anti-feminist movement that threatens to relegate women to their former inferior position in society. It's depressing to know, for instance, that in the US, which country I should have expected to be a beacon of progressiveness, women are still paid 80c on the dollar for the same work as men. Many countries, even in Europe, do not have supportive pregnancy and maternity laws, forcing many women to quit employment or accept less work responsibility. The US has yet to appoint a woman as president. In so many other countries, women are denied fundamental rights like voting, education, access to healthcare and justice. All over the world women's bodies serve as a battleground for men's honor (Ref: Mukhtar Mai). This is unacceptable- is it going to take another 100 years for a woman to be treated as and valued for the amazing individual she is? We have instituted so many holidays...Mother's Day, Secretary's Day, even Grandmother's Day, to get men to appreciate the women in their lives for a minute. Do you really think all that suffering can be wiped out with a spa gift certificate?? If life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights, then it's time we stopped taking those rights for granted, and spoke up to ensure that those rights remain so and can never be denied to our daughters. Women of the world, unite!