La festa della donna

One hundred years ago yesterday a compact was signed in Denmark allocating March 8 as a day for women. It was done to commemmorate the horrifying deaths of many women who had been working, locked in, in a New York shirtwaist factory when it caught fire. Rescue was impossible. That tragedy inspired many laws protecting workers in the United States, some of which are ignored even today with tragic consequences.

In Europe the day is the occasion for summing up advances and reporting on failures in the search for equality for women. The one is reported in millemeters, the other in meters. It has been decades since women hit the streets in the United States and demanded equality. We still don’t have it. Girls are still being reared not to expect it.

Recently a man in a group to which I belong compared married women to prostitiutes. When I chastised him for disrespecting women, let alone his own wife, I was told off as a shrill feminist. By a woman.

It happens that I don’t care if a women chooses to be a prostitute because there is after all, and always has been, a market for that. I only care if she is forced or pressured into it and doesn’t get her earnings. But I know men like that man and most citizens do despise sex workers. They don’t spend much time talking about the character of men who seek sex workers, however.

It sometimes seems to me that we’ve gone backwards, that there was more attention paid and more understanding required back in the Seventies than now in the 21st century. Women are still being stoned, burned, imprisoned and shot for refusing a man. Women are still being painted and displayed to sell cars. Women in Italy are paid from 10 to 30% less FOR THE SAME WORK as a man is paid. The last statistic I saw for the US was 67% paid to women compared to men.

I find this failure disgraceful to women. With the exception of women in countries where armed men are set to control them, the fault lies with women. Women rear men who think like Neanderthals and women allow industry to discriminate against women. It should not be left up to the women who is feeding two children on the proceeds of a third class job to see that she is paid commensurate with a man. Women at the top should be looking out for her. If every single woman refused to work on March 8 until parity for workers was achieved, industries from movie making to the corner cafè would feel it.

What is our problem? Are we afraid men won’t like us if we insist on fairness? Are we afraid to be called shrill feminists? There are more women than men. Stand up and show the world that we are to be reckoned with.