WOMEN STAND UNITED
FEMINISTS OUT IN FORCE FOR IWD STRIKES, DEMONSTRATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS Shout the F word from the rooftops
ACCORDING to Google Trends, International Men’s Day was the No1 trending topic in the UK this morning, with thousands searching, terrified it didn’t exist.
Don’t panic, it’s on November 19th, so that’s one step closer to gender parity for those poor subjugated blokes out there.
We assume International Men’s day is a chance to celebrate being top dog, being paid more and being in charge, of boardrooms, the media and, well, pretty much the world.
Meantime, us wimmin have our own day, when some of us get to shout the F word from the rooftops, wave placards in the streets and wear hats knitted into vaginas.
For many more, it’s a passing thought between work and the school run and making the dinner and popping in to check on an elderly parent.
For the single mum being pounded disproportionately by austerity, it probably doesn’t figure in a day of panicking over where the rent and food is coming from.
I see IWD not as a time to celebrate progress, because that’s premature, but it is a chance to galvanise the collective refusal to put up and shut up.
Feminism is not a trend, it is not a slogan on a T-shirt, it is a political movement demanding the basic human right of equality.
In the pictures of women from across the world, of all races, all shapes and sizes, of young and old, there is a hope that in solidarity, we really can bring change. CAMPAIGNERS for gender equality marked International Women’s Day on Friday with protests, discussion panels, walkouts and celebrations. In one of the first protests of the day, several hundred women gathered in central Madrid around midnight to bang pots and pans and demand more rights for women in a society they say is still dominated by men. Gender inequality has become a deeply divisive issue in Spain ahead of its April 28 parliamentary election. A new far-right party, Vox, which opinion polls show winning seats, has called for the scrapping of a landmark law on gender violence. One of Spain’s largest unions, UGT, said an estimated six million people walked out of their jobs for at least two hours in a strike to
Equality is not a trend, it is a basic human right ANNIE BROWN