We Need Women Behaving Badly

#MakeItHappen

All around the world, International Women's Day represents an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women while calling for greater equality.

Make It Happen is the 2015 theme for our internationalwomensday.com global hub, encouraging effective action for advancing and recognising women.

Each year International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. The first International Women's Day was held in 1911. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Organisations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women's groups, corporations and the media celebrate the day.

Various organisations identify their own International Women's Day theme, specific to their local context and interests. Many charities, NGOs and Governments also adopt a relevant theme or campaign to mark the day. For example, organisations like the UN, Oxfam, Women for Women, Care International, Plan, World Association of Girl Guides & Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and more - run exciting and powerful campaigns that raise awareness and encourage donations for good causes. The UN has been declaring an annual equality theme for many years.

A global hub for sharing International Women's Day news, events and resources 

Stop Telling Women To Smile

It's International Women's Day again and time to honor women's advancement and reminding us all of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

As a gay man I may sometimes encounter homophobia and oppression in my life, but that is next to nothing compared to what women in our societies have to go through. 

The structural indoctrination and prevailing views teach us all from an early age - whether we are men or women, gay or straight - that women are worth less and less important than men. That a woman's place is to please, aid and support men everywhere and all the time. This gender discrimination leads to women being bought and sold like cattle, treated worse than animals, being underpaid, exploited, used and abused, maimed and killed at an incredible rate worldwide. 

We should use this day - atleast - to reflect upon this phenomenon and to consider how we as individuals, and as part of the societies we live in, can modify our ways of thinking and acting to change this horrific situation. One first step could be to do what the American artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh suggests, to stop telling women to smile.

"Stop Telling Women to Smile" is an art series by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh that started in Brooklyn in the fall of 2012. It is an ongoing, traveling series that will gradually include many cities and many women.

To find out more about the project and how you can get involved with it, have a look at the website. 

Incomprehensible

I simply cannot understand it.

Why it is so difficult to accept that women must be granted equal opportunities and equal social, political and economical rights?

Why is it so difficult to understand that the systematic violence, abuse and oppression of women cannot and should not be socially acceptable?

Why is it so difficult to understand that women should be granted the rights to decide over their own bodies and their own sexuality?

Happy International Women's Day, may the struggle for an equal society be successful for the good of us all!

Are We Equal?

(via J.M.G.)

I was totally pissed (Sorry Diana, but there was no more fitting word to describe my feelings) by the complete indifference among my female - and male too - coworkers, especially the younger ones, on the significance and importance of International Women´s Day. Most of the younger women stated, "I  am treated equally, therefor it is not important to me!"

It may well be that Sweden is one of the countries that have come the farthest, but we still have staggering inequality here also.

Women in Sweden

• still earn (on average) 10-15 % less for the same work.
• are still not represented in a fair way in political assemblies.
• are still not represented in a fair way in management positions or on company boards in business. ("The Old Boys Club-syndrome")
• are still almost exclusively the victims of sexual crimes, stalking and domestic battery.
• are still forced into prostitution by partners, pimps or trafficking.

etc., etc ad infinitum.

In other parts of the world the situation is even worse. I simply cannot get my head around their complaisant attitude when they claim that the International Women´s Day has no bearing on them or their situation. Is it a "Me-generation" thing and an effect of the "Whats in it for me-attitude" towards life?

How are we ever going to get a society where all the minorities human rights are safeguarded if we cannot even agree that women, who are the majority of the nations and the worlds population, should have the full and equal rights of the men?

(And yes, I do feel a bit stupid as a gay man ranting at women for not caring enough about their human rights, but you can blame my mother - and father - for this! If you should wish to talk with them please ask me for their phone number.)

And the Struggle Continues...

After almost a century great strides in women´s equality have been taken in many ways and in many parts of the world. However, much more work remains before women achieve full and equal rights even in the countries where they have come the furthest. In other parts they still live in patriarchal slavery and are treated worse than cattle - and are more expendable - with hardly any human rights at all, if any.

Be strong, be determined and join forces among yourselves and with those other allies you can find. Hopefully you will not have to wait another hundred years.