We Should Have This National Conversation For and About Women, Equality and Our Nation

I proposed/asked this earlier tonight out on Facebonkers:

Can you imagine how different, how likely radically different our country would be, our legislation, our laws, if 50 percent of our government legislators were women?

Honestly, we should have this conversation. A national conversation.

I'd love to hear it, first of all, and then I'd like to hear it at least locally and then go nationally.

On the issues of health care and child care and schools and, heck, war and our war machine?

And then there's equal pay for equal work, along with really an untold list of what would be different and changed.

Can you imagine how different even the legislative conversations would be, let alone the results of their legislation

I'm no fool on this. I don't for a minute think we'd hit some Nirvana.

I just think we would be a radically different society and nation. Our government would be radically different and so, our nation would, as well.

Scotland is ahead of us on this. They even have an organized group, pushing for 50% of their representatives to be female.

Women 50:50

There are more  people out there in the world, proposing this idea, this framework and working on and for and toward it than I knew, before today. Here's another example.

Can We Create Planet 50-50 by 2030? 

The UN is in on it, too.

Get involved: Step It Up for gender equality: 

About Step It Up

Think about it.

How insane is it that we're still so horribly unequal, that there is still so much gross inequality, not just in the world but here in the US in the 21st Century? We agreed the part about "All men...created equal" meant men and women long ago, I think most of us agree.

Imagine.

I'd love to hear at least one show, one full hour out on KCUR, maybe on Steve Kraske's show.

It would be perfect for that station, him and his program.

Happy International Women's Day, 2013

 

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights." --Gloria Steinem

 

Link: International Women's Day 2013

Happy International Women's Day!

International Women's Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. The first national Women's Day was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. Links: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day

Fascinating article on "The Case for Girls"

There is a terrific article in Fast Company magazine this month showing there is a really awful preference for male babies in the world (link below): "It may not be surprising that there's a lingering preference for baby boys over baby girls worldwide. What's alarming, however, is that this global inclination is manifesting more strongly than ever." It's not just unfortunate but for a society, in can be dangerously lopsided. It's not healthy for the growth of a nation. More than that, it goes against nature in other ways, too: "In the 21st century, there's a compelling case for girls as the equal--and in some cases, optimal--gender for roles in leadership, innovation, and economic growth. Women excel in education, the most crucial factor in tomorrow's workforce; we are 56% of undergraduates in the U.S. and approaching parity in China and India. Our socialization is geared toward the right stuff for the changing requirements of success in the 21st century: Women are likely to have a more balanced, empathetic leadership style, better communication skills, a knack for fostering innovation through collaboration." Anyway, as I said, fascinating. You may want to look into it: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/161/branding-for-girls-advertising-for-women

Quote of the day

"Real men--and women--ride motorcycles." 

--me

International Women's Day 2011

In celebration of International Women's Day 2011, I want to be sure to mention this event at minimum, as I think women, in the first place, don't get enough credit for the central and hugely significant, positive roles they play in our societies--I think they largely help hold societies together--and secondly, because they are all too often treated from badly to horribly, in too many countries of the world:

International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women's Day is a national holiday.


So here's to International Women's Day and women around the world.  May we all one day be equal.

Links:  http://www.internationalwomensday.com/
http://www.christianmission-un.org/resource-center/manuscripts/pdf/maximizing-the-contribution-of-women-to-society.pdf

We still need International Women's Day--and badly

We had women's rights battles in the 60's and 70's, remember?

They were all over the news.

It was huge, at the time.

Revolutionary.

You wouldn't think we would still need International Women's Day that badly, now, in 2009, would you?

But, oh yeah, we surely do.

There are enough reasons and needs for it even here, in the United States, still, if for no other goal than just sheer equality.

How about equal pay for equal work?

Wouldn't you think that's a "no-brainer"?

It ain't.

It's not a given in the United States.

It's still being fought through Congress.

More tragically and importantly, there are places like Afghanistan where schools for girls have been destroyed because what passes for government--in this case, the Taliban--thinks women shouldn't be educated.

This takes "barefoot and pregnant" to a whole new, really ugly and ignorant level.

Then there's the whole male-dominated religious world out there, that makes women second class citizens, at best.

And I'm including the Catholic Church in that group, along with Islam, Muslim and virtually all other Fundamentalist religions of the world, including Southern Baptist.

So yeah, we still need an International Women's Day, now, in 2009. at this late date and we need it badly.

We need a well-advertised Women's International Month, for pity's sake.

Link: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/