International Women’s Day Events Calendar–3/5/10

From Louisville, KY:

IWD in China:

Managers operating businesses in China should be aware of the legal implications surrounding this annual holiday. According to Chinese government regulations, all full-time female employees are entitled to a half day off from work every year on March 8. Essential female employees (such as hospital staff or police) who are required to work on March 8 must be compensated at three times their normal salary rate for the half day of work.

Employers are not required to give a half-day off if March 8 falls on a weekend or to part-time employees who already work half-days. Companies who do not recognize the holiday could face penalties levied by local governments if they are reported by their employees. China does not recognize any corresponding holiday for male employees.

From Mauritius, this thought-provoking commentary (click link to read the whole piece, highly recommended):

The theme for International Women’s Day this year is equal rights, equal opportunities and progress for all, a theme which gives us little room for complacency, still less a reason to brag. To be fair, however, although this country can hardly be considered a haven for gender equality since the relationship between men and women is still one of oppression, or at least of relative dominance, great efforts have been made recently to empower women.

The Ministry of Women has virtually dragged housewives out of their hiding places and made entrepreneurs out of them. Also, many girls, previously considered unmanageable, have been rehabilitated by the Ministry of Social Security in half-way homes and trained into professions where they can now make a living. Still, far too many women, shackled with the burden of children and heavily dependent on their partners for their survival are subject to all kinds of abuse. Other professionally trained mothers find themselves forced to reduce their participation in the workforce and downscale their hopes for achievement.

But this is not what the discussions will be about. Because of the imminent elections and the legitimate ambitions of the few privileged women, the debate about equal opportunities for women will again tend to focus on quotas and getting more women involved in politics and forget, to a large extent, about dealing with the plight of the thousands of ordinary women.

In Hollywood (although we wish this was being directed by a woman, just saying):

A number of Hollywood unions and guilds, Producers Guild of America, Women in Film and the women’ committees of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Writers Guild of America West, have organized a night of dramatic readings of blogs and poems written by Afghan Women living in Afghanistan, mentored by American novelists, screenwriters and journalists.

The program, “Out of Silence” will be held at the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance on March 8, 2010 – International Women’s Day, and is directed by Frederick Ponzlov.

And finally, some musings from Katha Pollitt who reports that when it comes to measuring  gender egalitarianism, the U.S. ranks–wait for it–31–right between Lithuania and Namibia,

What’s the lesson for the United States? Wealth helps, but it’s not enough. It’s not automatic that as a country becomes richer and more developed men and women become more equal–especially when conservative religion has power, as in the United States and many nations. To an unusual degree, Americans resist “government” solutions to women’s inequality as an affront to meritocracy and individual initiative. But without paid parental leave and a reliable system of quality childcare, women will never be able to get much further toward workplace equality than they are now. Scandinavia’s extensive and flexible system of support for parents, including single mothers, is one of the major reasons Scandinavia leads the world in gender equality. Similarly, countries with lots of women in parliament–Rwanda is first, with 56 percent–tend to have quota systems, at least at first. The United States seemed to recognize their efficiency and fairness when it supported quotas in Iraq and Afghanistan. But here at home? Hard to imagine.

Definitely food for thought not only in the U.S. but as women everywhere blaze the path towards the future.

Many celebrations are taking place over the weekend in advance of IWD–please send us your pictures and we will  post as many as we can.  Be sure to check the blog on Monday when we will be participating in the IWD Blogathon.