International Women's Day, 2018

Today is International Women's Day, as March 8 always is.

I've put this poster up before, it apparently means something like "let's rebuild together", perhaps an appropriate slogan for International Women's Day 2018.

I'm not sure what I make of this day, as I find myself in the category, quite often, of marveling at modern contemporary society struggling to cure its ills created by becoming too modern by reaching vaguely out towards the standards of the past.  And frankly International Women's Day has a rather Communist, if you will, sound to it.

German "Women's Day" poster from 1914.  This poster was rather obviously sponsored by the German Socialist left.  It was also banned by the Imperial German government.

None of which would mean that the day, which has been endorsed for some time by the United Nations, isn't legitimate.  Nor would my comments suggest that women don't deserve an International Day.  Indeed they do.

And on that, the theme for 2018 perhaps very ably demonstrates that.  The theme this year is "Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives."  The UN says of this year's theme:

This year’s theme captures the vibrant life of the women activists whose passion and commitment have won women’s rights over the generations, and successfully brought change. We celebrate an unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality, safety and justice, recognizing the tireless work of activists who have been central to this global push for gender equality.

All that's probably true, and indeed brave women all over the world do struggle as noted.  Cudos to the UN for noting it, even if the UN rather oddly regards nations co-equally that abuse women's rights, as well as act anti democratically in all sorts of other ways.

In the US I suspect that there won't be much attention to the plight of rural women around the globe. There should be, but we're in the second half of the "Me Too" era which demonstrates a different set of problems. . . maybe. . . for women. An age old one that social progressive keep trying to solve by suggesting that that they've discovered a new standard that's actually a very, very old one.  That's had its own interesting dynamics, as those same forces struggle not to admit the historical truth that equality for women is a movement that's not only western, but Christian.  There's a reason that western societies are in the forefront of this movement, and always have been, and that's where that reason is to be found.