I'd tell you to get some more friends from other ethnic groups, but I cannot figure out which English term to express that idea is non-offensive to any EF member...

Well, that's one person from a normal background... better than Ada Lovelace and all the rest. Thank you!

Now this is a person from an underprivileged background.



Gee DB! Get out more!

Great! Two normal women! Hurrah!


I notice that they're both American and English speaking, though. Hardly underprivileged by most people's understanding of the term.

BelgianMum I so agree about all those 'days' including those awfully commercial things like Mother's and Father's Day, Valentine's Day, etc.
However Womens Day has a very long history behind it. The earliest Women’s Day observance was held on February 28, 1909, in New York and in the UK it started in 75 (or 77).

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-10094149.html

Here you go: http://www.businessinsider.sg/the-di...1#.VP1df0amDAp

But being underprivileged is not something restricted to women, it also affects men.

Is there an international underprivileged men's day? Or even an international underprivileged person's day?


I think that the origins of this day and the reasons behind it are sound but it's morphed into a great big commercial event (not unlike Mother's Day, valentine's day, grandparent's day etc) and moved away from what it was really about when it was introduced.

I'm going to start one: International Crappy Jobs Day


On that day, we need to make a special effort to be nice to the poor sods who do the jobs we are grateful not to have to do: the slaughtermen, the lavatory attendants, the machine operators, the sewage workers, the tanners, the fruit pickers, the warehouse workers and so on.


We should draw attention to their often crappy salaries, their often crappy work contracts, and the crappy way people treat them on a day to day basis.


No posh person is allowed to divert attention to his/her "struggle to the top". If you made it, well done, big pat on the back, now stfu. This day is only for the poor buggers who aren't there and are unlikely to ever get there.


This is what May 1st maybe should have been but isn't.


I just need to pick a date.

So i finally get some time to actually read some posts and reply...and my reply gets deleted? Says it was an ad?!?! The subject was IWD and all i did was mention a WOMENS BREAKFAST on that same day...how appropriate is that...IT WAS NOT AN AD!!!! I know the rules,have been reminded each time i post in the wrong place.
Gosh..not a bit a freedom on here anymore. Now that was a bit much, when someone adds a link in their reply...that could be considered an ad too i guess but no one is getting deleted for that!!?? Sheesh!

Shut up, woman!

June 1st is also busy (Children's day) so July 1st might be a good option. Beer and grilled sausages for everyone!

I'm going to go for St Zita's Day (April 27th): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zita


It's close enough to May 1st to be relevant to that festival's supposed purpose, and has a bit of historical justification too.


Now we just need to think of how we'd actually celebrate it.

Utter bollocks!

Your first sentence was "oh, cool..didn't know about IWD" so don't pretend that the event you were promoting has any relevance whatsoever.

The oppressed women's queue is over there.

Commercial Have you seen flowers, goods, chocolates, sexy undies or aynthing else- sold 'in the name of' International Womens Day? Where? I've never ever seen any, here, there or anywhere.

DB there are so many real projects led by women for women who are truly in need of support. So many banks for instance, women (yes by definition middle-class as they have succeeded themselves, black, white and anything in between) lending women all over the world including Africa and India- money are very low rates or % rates, to help them with starting a local business for instance. Oprah may well be very rich now, but have you ever read her story? Hardly from middle-class affluent background, is she? It does not take long to find out about such projects and so much more- if you are actually interested at all.

Women who hide their inabilities behind quotas, or refuse to give access to the father of their children, and take men to the cleaners, and many more - do not get my support, and really do make it so much worse for other women. The bitterness of some on this thread is tragic.

Lovely sunny out there- so will leave you to it. In French we call it 'un dialogue de sourds' and it gets us no-where.

So, let's get this straight: the objective of IWD is to raise awareness of women's issues around the world, especially those connected with a lack of privilege. Sounds reasonable to me.


But this random chap in Switzerland, with free access to broadcast media and the internet, has recently spent the weekend having his awareness raised of, er, Ada Lovelace, Margaret Hamilton and several artists, composers and so on, who've all done very well for themselves, but who are about as representative of normal women living normal lives as I might be representative of the oppressed peoples of Siberia.


And now you're telling me that it's my job to raise my own awareness of some quite important projects to improve the lives of women in less privileged parts of the world. Righty-ho. I'm already aware of these projects, as it happens, but that's missing the point: why is my FB feed and every newspaper and website I've looked at over the weekend filled with rich, mostly white faces?


If IWD is really about raising awareness of the situation of underprivileged women in the world, then it has failed.


Like every other worthy cause to promote the rights of common people, it has been hijacked by the usual suspects.


It's all getting a little bit tiresome.

Wait a second, as you mention there was a connection between military service and the right to vote (not only on the cantonal but as well on the federal level as far as I understand). This connection should become more obvious when one considers that this was actually part of the political discussion at the time (e.g. women that participated in the "Frauenhilfsienst" during WW2 demanded the right to vote or women wanted to have a right to vote, when the Bundesrat decided to start an initative that would render Zivildienst mandatory for women). So, maybe the connection is not explicitly sated in the Bundesverfassung but it was at least how many people at the time understood the law.

Don't get me wrong, of course this was unfair and it is sad that it took until 1971 for a succesfull vote to change the law. However, even though the law was changed to "Alle haben die gleichen politischen Rechte und Pflichten" (everybody has the equal rights and duties) there are at the moment no equal rights/duties when it comes to military service and I think it is equally sad that (too) many (wo)men can't acknowledge that.

Commercial is not always about selling things though is it. Making money from events is also commercial no?

As it happens I had received an email from a UK florist last week ( tried to find it in my trash bin but it's already deleted) which said something along the lines of 'surprise the woman in your life with a nice bouquet to celebrate international woman's day'. Also a FB message from one ofmy cousins ( who is a very successful lawyer and working mum) saying 'going to get pampered at 'posh hotel I can't remember the name of' to celebrate international women's day.

edit : just been and reread her post and discovered that it was her boss who offered the treat to all the female employees.


That's just a couple of things that I know of ( and both in the UK) but I'm sure there must be others about.

This doesn't really seem to be what it's all supposed to be about either.

http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/ce...-10095051.html

OK it's a commercial event everywhere now but I still don't see what's the problem, so it's Christmas, Easter and what not...florists and shops taking advantages of everything. I personally find it...cute. (when I was a child I was very happy and proud to make gifts, ahem...artifacts, for my mom, grandmoms, teachers ). Suppose I was brainwashed or something.

BelgianMum that is appaling- and those who do highjack IWD like this, women and men, should be truly ashamed of themselves- women in particular.