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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2015 6:52:46 GMT
Happy International Women's Day, everyone!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2015 10:32:38 GMT
I was noticing on the microcredit site in which I participate (www.babyloan.org), out of 31 projects that I have supported, 24 of them have been loans to women. 4 of the 5 projects that are currently being reimbursed are for women: a woman in Bosnia with a clothing shop, a mother of 9 in Indonesia who sells fried cow skin, a mother of 4 in Togo who sells frozen food, a mother of 2 in Cambodia with a grocery store. And to prevent being accused of discrimination, I will also say that the man currently in reimbursement phase has 2 childen and sells electronic equipment in Togo.
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Post by bjd on Mar 8, 2015 11:50:36 GMT
I am still lending on Kiva, 95% of my loans have been to women. The one guy I lent to is in arrears on his payments!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2015 11:52:50 GMT
All of my payments have been respected 100%.
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Post by lagatta on Mar 8, 2015 11:54:30 GMT
Yes, I'll check those out. I'm heading off to a Brunch du 8 mars with neighbourhood groups; it is taking place at a Haitian centre nearby. Hope there are some Haitian dishes. Normally I hate brunch, but this is just a local meet-up with some food and coffee. Local pols will probably show up.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2015 13:11:24 GMT
Thanks Lizzy although I don't really understand the meaning of a lot of these designations.
It seems there's a designated day or month for just about everything these days.
There is even a National Donut Day.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2015 15:44:18 GMT
Yes, I know, I'm a little ambivalent about the whole thing myself. There are so many worthy causes that need our attention, and I don't feel particularly disadvantaged. The first IWD was in 1911, well before most women had the vote or any rights, but now I have a bit of a hard time setting aside a day to celebrate my femaleness. However, I know that the focus has shifted to women in Africa and Asia, and even to the plight of the hundreds of First Nations women in Canada who are missing or murdered. So it's for them.
The first time I was aware of the day was way back in the '80s when I was living in Italy. There was a parade of women in Rome, all carrying mimosa branches. It was quite lovely.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2015 17:19:18 GMT
My Chinese colleague always proudly proclaimed that it was a national holiday for women in Taiwan. Only the men had to work on March 8th.
The Franco-German television station Arte is devoting the entire day to programmes about women's rights and empowerment. And it was pointed out all week on the news programmes that female executives still earn 8.5% less than their male counterparts, even when the job is identical.
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Post by lagatta on Mar 8, 2015 19:27:41 GMT
I remember the mimosas too!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2015 20:03:28 GMT
I was reading that the reason for the choice of March 8th was because that is when an uprising of women workers became the first event starting the Russian revolution. That might explain why it took a while for the Western world to start thinking about the event. Only communist countries celebrated the day for the first 20 or 30 years.
Tonight's evening news in France had a very interesting report on the scandalous treatment of female politicians over the years, from commenting on the way they dress (a subject never broached with male politicians) to "who is looking after the children?" One evil right wing politician even started clucking like a hen when a woman was giving a speech at the National Assembly. Thank god, most of the items were from several years ago and not from 2015.
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Post by waterhazardjack on Mar 11, 2015 0:37:14 GMT
I was reading that the reason for the choice of March 8th was because that is when an uprising of women workers became the first event starting the Russian revolution. That might explain why it took a while for the Western world to start thinking about the event. Only communist countries celebrated the day for the first 20 or 30 years. This is true. In fact, it was the women of Petrograd (St Petersburg) who initiated the first revolution in Russia, in the year of 1917. After they downed tools and walked off work on 25 February (8th March in 'our' calendar), other workers and soldiers followed suit. The so-called revolutionaries of the Bolshevik faction were caught off-guard and had to scuttle back to the capital to 'stay onside' and appear to be in control of events. 4 days later, the Czar was gone... |
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Post by lagatta on Mar 11, 2015 15:29:30 GMT
That is true, but the women of Petrograd chose the day to demonstrate as it had already been proclaimed as International Women's Day by the Socialist International in Copenhagen in 1910.
Women textile workers in Petrograd demonstrating for Bread and Peace sparked off what would become the February Revolution.
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