International womans day - flowers

[romily]

My aunt messaged me at lunch saying how nice it is that woman in Italy get flowers for international woman's day.

I was just like - hold on - woman got flowers for ages, isn't that day about things like - equal pay for the same job - no discrimination and all kinds of issues that woman still face today. Gender pay gap came to mind first, but really we are so far away from equality in this world in so many areas!

And now they again want to fob us off with a bunch of stupid flowers? I find this actually pretty insulting.

What are your thoughts?

[riverhorse]

It is a tradition in a lot of countries, including the former Communist countries which is why it's still a public holiday in Berlin and Meck-Pomm.

I find the flowers thing pretty meaningless but I still thought it was a sweet gesture that our Sixth Formers presented every female member of staff with a single tulip to mark the day today. I certainly thanked my student warmly.

[sophie]

It’s not much of a day to observe here… I saw it in action in several Latin American countries where it is much more of a big deal. I think here it’s a ‘new’ day to celebrate, and there is a general reluctance to get on board with holidays which are perceived as a marketing opportunity.

[Webs]

So they get flowers. You want flowers, go buy flowers.

You want to honor it a different way, do so.

[Liiisa]

I agree rom that it should be a political thing. Flowers are nice but I would prefer a raise and the ability to decide for myself whether I'm going to have children or not.

However, I thought the single tulips from the students thing that river described was sweet.

[tzarine]

years ago, in venice, a woman @ a shope gave me flowers for women's day

agree w rom & liisa

[romily]

Flowers are a nice gesture but I just felt that womans day is becoming another hallmark commercial holiday - like a token gesture without meaning when it comes to womans rights.

[sprite]

I have a feeling that it did get started as a sort of way for the Communists to claim they were better to women than the capitalist systems?
I'm too lazy to look it up.

I do like how one of the radio stations here celebrates it, just doing women in music all day.

[ozziegiraffe]

Quite a few interesting posts from my women friends in Solomon Islands, including former students, one a senior nurse, another a pioneer in IT in the country. I think it really means something for them, and they take it seriously.

[Queen]

The best thing I've ever had from anyone for International Women's Day was a couple of years ago my tech lead (a man, in an all male team) asked me if there was anything he could do, or his team could do to make it easier for me to work with them, and had I ever felt that they had treated me worse because of my gender.


No-one else has ever asked.

And no he hadn't, noone in the team had. They'd been great, still are. But they're in a country that scores well on the gender equality index (so... not the US).

And this year there was an event at the office with senior women talking about women in leadership... I did not go.

[romily]

I liked what my trainer did, he did a Facebook story with videos of all his female clients lifting weights, and a comment "happy woman's day to my female clients, your grit, strength and determination rocks my world!"

[tzarine]

roms
was talking to a mate from honduras, who noted how in latin america, women's day is a big day for demos for abortion rights & against domestic violence & how it is in the states

i could see a floral company getting into womens day as promotion, like how mothers day is here

[whothingie]

It's not really done here but I went into work today and on my desk was a small bag of goodies.

[HalcyonDaze]

Mar 9, 2024 15:46:12 GMT -5 tzarine said:

i could see a floral company getting into womens day as promotion, like how mothers day is here

I saw a comment elsewhere saying IWD is being turned into a kind of Mothers Day, and I can see that. The cupcakes, the breakfasts (one here had an all male speaking panel, but I think it was just a coincidence that it was held on IWD and not a specific event. Still, not a good look for a political group)

[ozziegiraffe]

It IS Mothers Day today in the UK.

[Queen]

Mar 10, 2024 2:47:51 GMT -5 HalcyonDaze said:

I saw a comment elsewhere saying IWD is being turned into a kind of Mothers Day, and I can see that. The cupcakes, the breakfasts (one here had an all male speaking panel, but I think it was just a coincidence that it was held on IWD and not a specific event. Still, not a good look for a political group)

There should never be a panel with an all male speaking panel from a political group. Not on any day.

[tinaja]

Any holiday that can be capitalized upon, will be capitalized upon, in the US anyway. Cards, flowers, candy, guilt driven lots of times lol. That's what I think when I see men buying flowers in the grocery store. What did you do?

[Liiisa]

Mar 10, 2024 9:17:59 GMT -5 tinaja said:

Any holiday that can be capitalized upon, will be capitalized upon, in the US anyway.

SO true. The only thing I can think of that wouldn't be is Buy Nothing Day

[tzarine]

Mar 10, 2024 2:47:51 GMT -5 HalcyonDaze said:

Mar 9, 2024 15:46:12 GMT -5 tzarine said:

i could see a floral company getting into womens day as promotion, like how mothers day is here

I saw a comment elsewhere saying IWD is being turned into a kind of Mothers Day, and I can see that. The cupcakes, the breakfasts (one here had an all male speaking panel, but I think it was just a coincidence that it was held on IWD and not a specific event. Still, not a good look for a political group)

absolutely
it is truly awful how corporations do this coopting. cupcakes, pins, flowers

i know a woman who fancies herself a guru & she's all over empowering yourself on international women's day.
she's offering discounts on her seminars

[Queen]

I saw one Aussie company that offered a discount that was the percentage difference equivalent to the gender salary gap.

Which I thought was a cool way to support women, and raise awareness.

[lillielangtry]

Didn't there used to be a bot on Twitter that responded to companies tweeting about IWD with information about their gender pay gap? Back in the day when there was some useful stuff there.

[Queen]

twitter.com/paygapapp

Yep.

It doesn't work anymore though because, well, you know...

[crazycat]

We have a small morning tea and a gift for each female and our MD gives a speech. It is a nice event for them to express their gratitude to the different we make to our team even though there is still a long way to go in society for equality. We work in a male dominated environment, but all of our females are very happy with the working conditions and treatment.

[whothingie]

Nice as it was to be recognized, discovered today that it was on instructions from HO in the USA. Made its way to HR here, sent to next level down to distribute and today I was requested to approve the invoice for our branch, all three of us, at least four times the cost in the local supermarket. Factor in courier costs and I could have had had another couple of hours pay to do what I wanted to do with it.

[Phar Lap]

International women’s day? The eight of March is Junior’s birthday. I think of this day as M’s birthday. I don’t think of this day as international anything.

[tzarine]

Mar 12, 2024 2:29:50 GMT -5 Phar Lap said:

International women’s day? The eight of March is Junior’s birthday. I think of this day as M’s birthday. I don’t think of this day as international anything.

it's been a day since 1909
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day

[Liiisa]

My favorite IWD story is in the 80s, my lesbian activist then-MIL had a leftist/gay rights radio talk show on WBAI in New York and asked me to phone in to read a passage from a book (I think it was one of those Starhawk books). So that was lovely. I hope she's well - she f'd off to Paris a decade or so ago, and we've kinda lost touch.

I'm good with that sort of thing; it's just the spending money on performative acknowledgement like whothingie cites above rather than actually paying us more or hiring more staff that makes me roll my eyes.

[Queen]

Same re the performative stuff, and I'm over the "inspiring leadership lecture for IWD" nonsense as well.