SoroptiVoiceBLOG

This week's SoroptiVoice blog comes from Theresa Lyford, SI South West Pacific's Assistant Federation Programme Director in charge of coordinating SISWP zones A and B. She got to celebrate International Women's Day 2012 in China - and what an amazing experience it was! Many thanks to Theresa for sharing this article with us!   

I’m sitting sipping a cup of coffee in the only ‘western’ coffee shop in the city of Songjiang just out of Shanghai in China.  It’s the 8th of March and it’s International Women’s Day and for those of you who know me the café is Starbucks and that’s not my normal coffee preference.  However, I digress - Starbucks is buzzing, the café is full of people and those people are all women.  The shopping street outside is full of laughing, chattering women enjoying the afternoon in the company of other women.

Women in China first celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8, 1924.  Thanks to the support of the Communist Party of China, the day has been commemorated each year in China since, with activities focused on equal rights at work and at home.  These days the day has lost a lot of its original political flavour and become more an occasion to show respect, appreciation and love.  International Women’s Day to China’s young women is no longer merely a reminder of their rights and equality.  Instead it serves as reminder that they are also ‘holding up half the sky’ at home, in the family.

In China IWD is celebrated with women being given the afternoon off work and they get paid for this as well.  What a novel concept! I don’t think I’ve seen this happen with employers here in Australia and certainly not getting paid to celebrate this auspicious occasion.  When I arrived at the University Campus this morning I was greeted by the staff with a lovely card and a small gift – all women employees are treated this way - and then when I went to my first class the students also greeted me wishing me a happy IWD.  I think this might be the first occasion where I’ve actually been acknowledged in such a way as this and it was really nice.

So here I am, sitting in Starbucks in a foreign country, enjoying the company of women, who for the most part do not speak English, yet we were able to communicate with each other on this special day and celebrate together the accomplishments of women around the world.

I hope you all had a great day and spent some of the day thinking about the wonderful women who went before us and laid down the foundations for where women can go in the world today, and for what we can achieve.