Today is International Women’s Day.
It was first established in the early 1900s, and since then has been a day designated for the fight for equality of the sexes.
From the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote to the Lilly Ledbetter Act backing equal pay, legislation in the United States has been slowing progressing in its protection of women’s rights.
But we still have a long way to go. Abortion rights are constantly threatened in Congress, the majority of sexual assault and domestic violence cases go unreported, gendered media representation is often reductive, and women face a lot of inequality in the workplace.
One of the most important projects I’ve been involved in during my time in the blogosphere is Feminist Friday. It’s a collaborative project organized by Gene’O where bloggers write on a variety of projects related to equality for women.
And now those Feminist Friday posts have been edited by Natacha Guyot and compiled into an e-book anthology featuring 20 essays by 8 authors.
It covers a range of topics: education, social media and marketing, rape culture, the label of “feminism,” and representation in media.
I’m a bit biased, but I think the collection is amazing, and I’ve learned so much about issues surrounding gender bias from the other Feminist Friday bloggers. And now you can read about how far we’ve come and how far we have to go–it’s what International Women’s Day is all about!
You can get the e-book for free on Smashwords or for $0.99 on Amazon (the proceeds will go to a feminist-friendly organization yet to be determined).
Victim to Charm 
Happy Women’s day!
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Yes! You too :)
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I’ve downloaded the book for my upcoming trip. Next time you should advocate for a mention of disability ;)
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Funny you should mention–my piece in the book is about the Bechdel test as a beginning to a discussion about representation of women in the media. While I was researching it I realized that a similar test could be developed for race, disability, etc., so I wrote a followup post separate from the Feminist Friday project. There’s a link to that post in the e-book, so if you have internet much during your trip you should give that a read ;)
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awesome!!!!!
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Very awesome!!
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Happy International Women’s Day! :)
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Thank you! You too :)
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You’re welcome! :)
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Happy Women’s Day to all women all over the world.
Interesting that this day was first celebrated in New York City, in the United States in 1909. It was an initiative of the Socialist Party of America, in support of the Ladies Garment Worker’s Union.
The first country to make March 8 an official day was the Soviet Union, under Lenin. It celebrated the launch of the February Revolution, as women, on March 8 held a strike in Moscow, demanding the end of World War 1. That initiative was one of the events that triggered the Russian Revolution.
But then, it is no longer politically correct to recall what we owe to the Socialists of that period today.
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Perhaps not politically correct but important anyway! I read a bit of history on the website but thank you for synthesizing it for me :)
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