March 8 is International Women's Day.

March 7, 2006 9:49 PM

March 8 is International Women's Day. And I stumbled across some stunning graphic design, a collection of classic Russian posters, the history of the poster as a form of protest, this cool pin to wear tomorrow, and much much more. Take a moment to commemorate a special woman tomorrow.
posted by infini (17 comments total)

I wore my purple and green tie today to acknowledge IWD. I'm sure some see the tie as a sign of the patriarchy so this was somehow an ironic statement, but whatever.

Stunning graphic design? Your opinion is your own of course, I thought that poster was terrrible.

Meanwhile of course...
posted by wilful at 10:33 PM on March 7, 2006

Infini - thanks for the reminder and the post. There's a friend of mine who's a feminist and taking her PhD. in Russian studies who'd like this too, especially the Russian links, and the reminders of the protests of (well, specifically Russian) women against the oppression of the times. Nice one.
posted by Zack_Replica at 11:58 PM on March 7, 2006

wilful - quite. I wrote stunning first, linked later... you have me there

Zack - thank you, as an international woman, how can I forget?

your friend may like this link too. Most graphic.
posted by infini at 1:36 AM on March 8, 2006

Thanks for the reminder and great links.
posted by slimepuppy at 2:02 AM on March 8, 2006

So when is International Men's Day?
posted by Orange Goblin at 3:53 AM on March 8, 2006

I believe every day is International Men's Day, Orange Goblin (someone was going to say, so...)

So who is sending me flowers and buying my lunch to commemorate MY day? Huh huh?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:12 AM on March 8, 2006 [1 favorite]

Maybe the statistics listed in this link will help explain why we don't really need an International Men's Day
posted by darsh at 6:26 AM on March 8, 2006

I think it's hilarious how the Russians dumped Communism without a second thought but kept all of the BS Communist holidays.
posted by nixerman at 6:31 AM on March 8, 2006

ThePinkSuperHero beat me to it. Although, I would have said, "That would be every *other* day". Rimshot optional

Just to add a few links to the pile, for the Canadian perspective you can also check out the Status of Women Canada's web site.

From their background information, "The Canadian theme for International Women's Week 2006 is “Beyond Laws: The Right to be Me', which addresses women's rights, women's diversity and the need to put words into action."
posted by melimelo at 9:24 AM on March 8, 2006

Maybe the statistics listed in this link will help explain why we don't really need an International Men's Day

Wow. Untill reading that link I never appreciated it before. Being a man is AWESOME!
posted by tkchrist at 10:38 AM on March 8, 2006

Actually, I think that link was saying it's awesome to be a man in a third world country.

In other news, I actually got my girlfriend a present for International Women's day. I expect she'll be confused by it.
posted by gambit at 11:18 AM on March 8, 2006

Actually, I think that link was saying it's awesome to be a man in a third world country.

I suppose by a slim margin. Poverty sucks for everybody pretty much.

That link was somewhat over simplifying a far more complex issue that involves class and geography almost as much as gender. Perhaps necessary to illustrate a depressing truth.

"1% of the titled land in the world is owned by women" the Remaining 99% is owned by men... and 80 some-odd percent of THAT is owned by a few RICH men. IOW: Most PEOPLE don't own shit.

And a great deal of the rest was kind of, well, about how women have babies and men don't. And in poorer countries having babies is very dangerous and has a cascading effect throughout a women's life. And in those countries ruling classes don't give a shit about healthcare.
posted by tkchrist at 12:05 PM on March 8, 2006

Melimelo - I saw that too, powerful theme, but their poster was in PDF format and I didn't want to link to that.
posted by infini at 12:09 PM on March 8, 2006

tkchrist: You're right, the numbers I linked to in the Indepenant are overly simplistic. And many of them are about how life sucks in the developing world. But some of them were about the so-called rich world - how about:

Women in full-time jobs earn an average 17% less than British men

Women in part-time jobs earn an average 42% less than British men

67% of all illiterate adults are women (emphasis mine)

In the US, 35% of lawyers are women but just 5% are partners in law firms

Maybe we can try to highlight those issues. And remember, today is International Womens Day. Just because life sucks for most everyone in developing countries, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that in most cases, it stinks more for women than for men.
posted by darsh at 12:33 PM on March 8, 2006

Okay, then how about male privilege in this country?

The Male Privilege Checklist and Male Privilege in Online Fandom

Closer to home enough for you?
posted by FunkyHelix at 12:41 PM on March 8, 2006

Orange Goblin asked So when is International Men's Day?

Once a month, when my International Male catalog arrives.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:46 PM on March 8, 2006

Margaret Sanger and The Woman Rebel. A mini-edition of the 20 year+ struggle by the feminist and birth-control agitator to exempt contraceptive material from the Comstock Law.
posted by tellurian at 5:16 PM on March 8, 2006