Eleanor Roosevelt
Today is International Women’s Day. Some quotes and a quick video. The original video is at XBlog. There is more here: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/.
What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.
Mark Twain
Ironic that yesterday, there was a call for a million women march in Egypt. Maybe a few hundred showed up.
I arrived in Tahrir around 2pm local time [12GMT] on Tuesday March 8, but was surprised to see the sheer volume of men who outnumbered the women, as if it was International Men’s Day!
However, as the crowd trickled in, it grew into hundreds but very far from the planned one million!
Ironically, the few women, I came across in the beginning, were oblivious of the fact that it was a women's day march.
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/03/09/long-battle-ahead-egyptian-women
The counter march had men shouting at them to go home and get back in the kitchen. In case there is any doubt, there is a strong ‘thug’ element in the newly democratic country. These is not a modern, western educated, population. Many people can not comprehend the context.
A survey in 2008 by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights claimed that 98% of foreign women and 83% of Egyptian women in the country had been sexually harassed. CNN.com
People were standing in groups and the majority of conversations were tense. “Egyptian women are too emotional. They are different from western ladies,” Mahmoud Ahmed told Ahram Online.
Others rejected the ideas of the march because of religious backgrounds. “We rule by the Quran and the Quran does not allow a woman to rule men,” said Mustafa Tarek to Ahram Online.
Meanwhile, as a group of activists stood side-by-side holding banners of the movement calling for equality, another group of male protesters came from the other side to disrupt the march. As males and females activists chanted “Men and women, one hand,” “Muslims and Christian, one hand,” the other group described as “thugs” chanted “No, no, the people want women to step down,” and “The Quran is our ruler.”
It was a shouting match more than a dialogue, with neither side hearing the other. The thugs became insulting and aggressive, but the majority of the activists insisted on staying. The thugs then became violent and started pushing and harassing some women. Activists ran away to Qasr El Aini street, thugs running after them until they reached a point where the army was stationed. The army fired in the air, and the thugs ran away. The army sent soldiers to accompany home girls who had been harassed. “I got harassed by those thugs, I don’t know what to say,” said an activist female who preferred to remain anonymous. She was very angry and called on everyone to leave Tahrir Square and not to return, at least for today.
What a strange thing man is; and what a stranger thing woman.
Lord Byron
I love women. They're the best thing ever created. If they want to be like men and come down to our level, that's fine.
Mel Gibson
A partial list of inventions by women…
| INVENTION | INVENTOR | YEAR |
| Circular saw | Tabitha Babbitt | 1812 |
| Submarine lamp and telescope | Sarah Mather | 1845 |
| Paper-bag-making machine | Margaret Knight | 1871 |
| Dishwasher | Josephine Cochran | 1872 |
| Globes | Ellen Fitz | 1875 |
| Locomotive chimney | Mary Walton | 1879 |
| Elevated railway | Mary Walton | 1881 |
| Alphabet blocks | Adeline D. T. Whitney | 1882 |
| Life raft | Maria Beaseley | 1882 |
| Fire escape | Anna Connelly | 1887 |
| Rolling pin | Catherine Deiner | 1891 |
| Ironing board | Sarah Boone | 1892 |
| Medical syringe | Letitia Geer | 1899 |
| Street-cleaning machine | Florence Parpart | 1900 |
| Windshield wiper | Mary Anderson | 1903 |
| Rotary engine | Margaret Knight | 1904 |
| Electric hot water heater | Ida Forbes | 1917 |
| Engine muffler | El Dorado Jones | 1917 |
| Chocolate-chip cookies | Ruth Wakefield | 1930 |
| Disposable diaper | Marion Donovan | 1950 |
| Liquid Paper, a liquid used to correct mistakes printed on paper | Bessie Nesmith | 1951 |
| Apgar tests, which evaluate a baby’s health upon birth | Virginia Apgar | 1952 |
| Scotchgard fabric protector | Patsy O. Sherman | 1956 |
| Snugli baby carrier | Ann Moore | 1965 |
| Kevlar, a steel-like fiber used in tires, helmets, and bulletproof vests | Stephanie Kwolek | 1966 |
A woman is like a tea bag - you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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Great YouTube "Thank You". Very inspirational... and yet...
ReplyDeleteWomen still do not get paid equal $$'s for equal work. I've seen it first hand.
•A study by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) examined how the wage gap affects college graduates. Wage disparities kick in shortly after college graduation, when women and men should, absent discrimination, be on a level playing field. One year after graduating college, women are paid on average only 80 percent of their male counterparts' wages, and during the next 10 years, women's wages fall even further behind, dropping to only 69 percent of men's earnings ten years after college. According to the AAUW report, even after "[c]ontrolling for hours, occupation, parenthood, and other factors normally associated with pay, college-educated women still earn less than their male peers earn. . . . A large portion of the gender pay gap is not explained by women's choices or characteristics."
From -
http://www.now.org/issues/economic/factsheet.html