Thursday, March 08, 2007

International Women's Day

So today is International Women's Day (Internationella Kvinnodagen). I haven't seen much notice about it here - not like in Sweden where it is given a fair share of attention.

I remember when the owner of a small supermarket where I used to work weekends during my first years during university, proudly gave all the women flowers and a little gift on March 8. The gift was a little mini jewelery box (1/2 inch in diameter) where he said we should put our birth control pills... You could see that he thought this was a fantastic idea!

Someone gently told him that birth control pills usually comes in a pack, much wider than 1/2 inch, and putting them all in a little box wasn't really a good idea... and that perhaps the International Women's Day was not really a "gift giving" day like "Valentine's Day". Sort of a different kind of day...

But it was a nice thought.

4 comments:

Annika said...

Jacal! Jag såg inte ett ord i Washington Post om kvinnodagen igår. Vet inte om det talades om dagen på kvällsnyheterna på TV heller, men ngt säger mig att det inte gjordes det...

Anonymous said...

Sweden, what a sick and perverted country that your boss would say such a thing. I lived there several years and know this mentality is the norm. The men are feminists and have no will to be gentlemen.

Women should be celebrated and respected everyday. At least I do.

Miasworld said...

For true celebration of this day - go to East Europe, especially the Newly Independent States. In many of these countries, it is a national holiday that is celebrated in full scale. In Estonia, I saw soldiers walking the streets giving tuplips to passing by women. In Moldova, they have two days off from work this year, Thursday AND Friday...(and I am not there this week. Instead I will be there next week, when everyone have to work Saturday as well to compensate for the extra Friday off... just great...:)

Erik - does not the fact that the guy did not know how how birth control pills are packed say more about his experience with women than anything else? Agree that the comment was inappropriate, but would not agree that this has to do with feminism. If you want to respect me, then treat me like an equal. I dont see how this exclude gentlemen behaviour in any way?

JaCal said...

Annika - nä, såg ingenting alls här heller. Inte ett ljud.

Lennar - welcome to my corner! Oh, I liked my boss a lot and he sure was a gentleman, he just had gotten a few things backwards... ;-)

Miasworld - yes - when I did a little googeling I saw that it is a pretty big thing in Eastern Europe (and other parts of the world)and a national holiday in other countries. How interesting for your to have seen these things!I haven't traveled much in Eastern Europe (a brief visit to Estonia) and not at all in the Balkans - must give you a great and different view of the world!