Friday 8 March 2013

International women's day(?)

I have to be really honest: I didn't even know there was an 'International Women's Day', let alone that today was it, until about halfway through my first cup of tea at my desk when one of my coworkers wished me a "happy women's day"... But it really got me thinking. What? How? Why?

In this culture we are so bombarded with Halmark holidays. Is this just another reason to BUY for the women in your life?

It may be. Or maybe it's another opportunity to reflect, and that is one of my favourite past times. There has been so much news lately, for instance, a public flogging for a woman in the Middle East who had premarital sex (which she alleges was rape)... This is a reminder, I think, of just how lucky most of us are here. We are free to be educated, love and be loved by whoever we choose, marry, or not marry, work, or not... We get to have those freedoms. It is also a reminder of how we came to have these freedoms, all the brave women who took risks and challenged the way things were. All the women who still fight.

In my own little space of the world, it is a reminder of the strong, brave, intelligent women I come from. My own grandmother who, at 9 years old in the comfort of her childhood bed, deep in the depression decided that she didn't want to be poor and that meant she was going to go to university... This at a time when women didn't typically go to university. She then went on to make her mark on her profession and then be honored for it with an award in her name at one of the top universities in Ontario. For my own mother who made her way through university with two kids in tow. For my dad's mother who was taken far too young. I honor those women.

"Strong women may we know them may we raise them may we be them" - unknown.

Happy International Women's Day!
Talia

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