Women Matter: International Women’s Day, Spring 2012’s Opening

By Tracey L. Hurd, Executive Director

We celebrate the start of our Spring 2012 series in just a few days. We will consider the topic, “Women’s Alternatives to Competition and Aggression,’ through film, prepared reflection, and discussion.  Sarah Roche-Mahdi will bring her history as a scholar, writer, feminist, and activist to reflection about her engagement with CODEPINK (originally called Code Pink Women for Peace).  We will view a portion of Anne Macksoud’s film, “Missing Peace:  Women of Faith and the Failure of War.”  And we will discuss together the question, “How do women deal with competition and aggression?  What strengths do women—in all their diversities—bring to these issues?”  We will name women as a focal point to our explorations and see how that opens doors to new understandings.    

We open our spring series on, March 8^th, which is International Women’s Day.  Though individually and as a group we have honored International Women’s Day in many ways, 2012 is the first year that we do so with our official name, WomenExplore Lecture and Discussion Forum.  This matters.  To name is to attribute significance.  Women matter and our name, WomenExplore, makes a focus on women visible.

International Women’s Day was marked for the first time in 1911 on March 19^th in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. It was tied to political movements.  In 1975 the United Nations began celebrating March 8^th as International Women's Day and two years later (1977), the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed by Member States. 

Writers from the United Nations website ask:  “Why dedicate a day exclusively to the celebration of the world's women?”  They answer, “ In adopting the resolution on the observance of Women's Day, the General Assembly cites two reasons: to recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms require the active participation, equality and development of women; and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security.”

Just months ago, President Barack Obama and Secretary Hilary Clinton issued the US National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security.  It has many specific points about the importance of strategic continued attention to women.  They wrote:  “The goal is as simple as it is profound:  to empower half the world’s population as equal partners in preventing conflict and building peace in countries threatened and affected by war, violence and insecurity.  Achieving this goal is critical to our national and global security.” (Department of State, December 19, 2011)

Women matter.  Many gains have been made both by and for women.  Globally, International Women’s Day gives nations permission and encouragement to pause to consider “half the world’s population.”  WomenExplore gives all who participate similar license.  But we go one step further.  WomenExplore, as it was in TOP before, embodies the message that women hold great promise for the transformation of the world.  In our sessions, processes and mission we say:  Listen to women, let their words and lives speak.  Together we can understand and heal this world, always moving towards our better visions of it.   We both start and celebrate this on March 8^th, at 10 am at University Lutheran Church…there’s a great session, a small reception, and a seat for you.  See you there!

Remember International Women's Day?

A person could easily forget. It wasn’t mentioned anywhere in my daily paper, The Boston Globe. Not March 8, the day of the event, and not the next day either. The results of the Academy Awards, of course, were mentioned everywhere. (At least, with Kathyrn Bigelow’s record-breaking Best Director win, there was something special for women to cheer.)

What IWD Is

Guess what event triggered IWD? You may be surprised, as was I, to learn that a strike by Women Textile Workers in NYC on March 8, 1857, initiated this event. So says The Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. The strike was eventually commemorated around the world to highlight the struggles of working women and the need for women’s suffrage and equality of rights.

Naturally, it took a woman to declare March 8, International Women’s Day. The year was 1911. The woman was Clara Zetkin, a German labor leader and editor. Because of its foundation in labor rights, the IWD’s symbol is “bread and roses,” adopted from the labor movement of the early 1900s, to signify women’s rights to basic needs as well as to an enjoyable quality of life.

Big Day in Many Countries, But Not U.S.

A friend from Bosnia told me IWD was her favorite work holiday. The women in her company were paid for the day but instead of working, went to a party and received a gift from the company. How’s that for a concept? Another friend, from the States, said he had fond memories of celebrating the day in the former Soviet Union where women were given the day off and their bosses (mostly men) did their jobs. Whoa! At least in the white collar world, imagine how much bosses would learn by doing the work of their assistants and direct reports?

When I checked the IWD website to post an event in Boston, I was surprised to see that tiny (compared to U.S.) England had many more events going on that we did in this country. Then I noticed the website was a British one and consoled myself that it was because of that we came in second. After searching in vain for publicity and events in Boston, I have to say now: I don’t think so.

Change This Picture

Here are a few photos from the event I participated in yesterday. The idea was for women to celebrate and honor women around the world by standing on a bridge—I love the physical metaphor—to show that we unite in bridging our differences, bridging the gaps in equality, and connecting with one another. The idea of meeting on bridges sprang from Women for Women International, a great group that supports women victims of war around the world. Women gathered on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Millenium Bridge in London, and on bridges as far away from these urban cultures as Uganda. In Boston, we chose the Mass Ave bridge that connects Boston and Cambridge.

Note how few people are in my pictures. The banner you see held by two women came from the World Conference on women in Beijing in 1995. The poster with the many colored female symbols was created to support Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, when she ran for President in 1972. Chisholm had famously declared, "Women in this country must become revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old, the traditional roles and stereotypes." You may be sure we commented on how sad it was that the signs came from times we just knew were turning points that would significantly improve the world for women abroad and here in the U.S.

While we did make up in enthusiasm and originality in signage what we lacked in number, I hope next year shows an entirely different image: that women all over America are joining with women around the world to celebrate all that women are, do, and can be. I hope we come together in solidarity to recognize how much further we need to go to have equality in terms of pay, political representation, child care, health care, reproductive rights and safety from violence at home and on the streets.

I don’t know whether we in the U.S. have more of a problem with the concept of “international” or with celebrating women. They both seem to stick in the craw of too many Americans.

Whatever the reasons, let’s change this picture next year. Please. Put it on your calendar now: March 8, 2011, a day of recognition that a lot of change still needs to happen and a day of celebration for all that women do to better the societies in which we live.

As Hillary Says

"Women are still the majority of the world's poor, unhealthy, underfed, and uneducated," Secretary of State Clinton said. (Check it out in her State Department video message.) "They rarely cause violent conflicts but too often bear their consequences. Women are absent from negotiations about peace and security to end those conflicts. Their voices simply are not being heard."

She repeated her words from a speech she made at the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing: "Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights."

Right on, sister!

—Cheryl Suchors