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In Russia, International Women’s Day is a serious name for a not-very-serious holiday. It was first suggested by Clara Zetkin, a serious German socialist, at a serious conference in 1910. But now, in Russia at least, Clara is best remembered in the very silly tongue-twister…
“Karl stole Clara’s corrals, Clara stole Karl’s clarinet.”
(Karl, of course, is Karl Marx.)
The day itself has changed in the same way. I asked three women in Saint Petersburg what it meant to them:
It began with politics. When women began to do hard manual work, making roads and so on, their salaries were very low. I think it was half of a man’s salary. So they wanted better conditions.
Some time later it became just Women’s Day. I think that in many countries, and in Russia too, it is Mothers’ day first of all. So children make some presents for their mothers, and husbands buy flowers for their wives. It is very usual, that if a woman or a girl is not a mother yet, she gets some flowers or something too. People consider a woman without a child as a “future mother” or something like that.
It’s a day when you feel beautiful and you realise that everybody loves you.
In Russia holidays are just for relaxing. Just going to the theatre or something like that.
My opinion about the holiday… I don’t like public holidays at all. I think that people should do something different from what they actually do. For most people in Russia, this holiday is just a reason for not working the second half of the 7th March and the first part of 9th March. To drink at work in the evening on 7th. It annoys me to see so many drunk men in the evening on this “women’s holiday”. But this holiday is good when you are a child. In play schools they celebrate it beautifully. They make cards.
For me, 8th March is a good occasion for getting flowers as a present. It’s beautiful to see those little yellow flowers, which are quite cheap, they’re very traditional ones. When I was in Finland on holiday, I was really missing Russia and I felt that it was a very good holiday. They don’t celebrate it there but they cooked me a cake and bought flowers for me and my little daughter, who was only one year old.
Really you have to get this story first hand from my friend who emigrated to Israel. The story happened there….
Tel-Aviv, some time in the 1990s at around midday. My friend is working in a perfume shop. The door opens slowly and a man’s voice calls out loudly “Who here speaks Russian?”. My friend replies “me!”.
“Can I buy a present for my wife?” he asks, walking up to the counter. He is dressed in dirty old workman’s clothes. The saleswoman immediately guesses that he must have come from one of the building sites nearby. “Of course you can,” she replies “ would you like to choose perfume, eau de toilet, or maybe a body lotion, or perhaps something else?”
The man looks a bit confused by the range of different products, and asks “Can I have a good French perfume?”
“Yes, you can.”
The man buys the perfume and goes out. Then another customer comes, dressed more or less the same. He also speaks Russian, and asks for “a good French perfume”. After that, the next customer, and the one after that, also bought good French perfumes. In fact, the shop was busier than ever. Clearly the word had gone round that here was a shop where they spoke Russian and understood all about high quality fragrances.
The shop closed in the evening and the shelves were empty. Even the dusty bottle of “Poison”, which had waited years for this happy event, had been sold. The owner of the shop was amazed.
“What day is it today?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
“It’s 8th March,” answered the saleswoman. “It’s a big celebration in Russia.”
Is International Women's Day celebrated in your country? If so, how? Do you think 'International Days' serve a good purpose, or do you think that we should raise awareness of issues in other ways? Send us your texts.
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Kirti writes “We celebrate women’s day in our country, India. There are many programmes on TV. Some organizations arrange special programs for women’s day. I don’t understand why there is a need for a special day to give us importance. Why don’t we get respect for our entire life?
The status of women in India before freedom was worse. They didn’t have the right to education. They carried the load of restriction on their basic needs like food, clothes and types of work. They suffered inhuman activity like child marriage, and sati (the immolation of a widow on her husband's pyre) performed by the community.
Thanks to our great leaders, who took lots of effort to change the condition of women, now we have all education facilities as well as freedom of work. But we still haven’t got the same importance as men. The minds of the people are carrying the same traditional values. Indian women are still suffering in their work places. Every time they have to fight for the rights that they deserve. I am waiting for the day when we will not need to celebrate any women’s day, and our government will not be required to announce any special policy for women.”
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Kumiko Sakuda writes:
In my country we don't have Women's Day. I think that it is a good idea to have Women's Day because it is a good way to raise awareness of the women's equality problem. Nowadays women and men are said to be equal, but still there is a gap between them. For example, women's salaries are not so high as those of men. Also some companies are not willing to employ women because according to them, the work is too hard for women. In addition, at home women are expected to do most of the house work even though they have full-time jobs. Therefore, I think it is important to think about women's roles at least once a year and raise awareness of this issue.
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Agne Kaas writes:
I live in Lithuania and it is near Russia ( actually, our country had been under the pressure of Russia for a long time) and we celebrate the 8th of March, altough we do not have a public holiday on that day. The author gives quite clear customs that really exist, but it nowadays in our society the celebration of women's day is more a tradition. Especially young people do not pay much attention to it and even do not know the purpose of celebrating it. However, all men buy perfume and flowers - usually tulips of all colours. Even at work all men gather and greet women with flowers, and it is not strange at all if a customer or client gives a flower to a saleswomen etc. It is very nice to be a woman on that day because all men are very sweet, soft and companionable.
Liliani writes:
I live in Brazil, where this day isn’t a holiday, but the shops do a lot of commerce because the people like pleasing the women who are so dedicated.
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BuiDuyQuang writes “Women’s Day is an important event in my country. Now women and men are equal. But most of the companies in the world have choosen more men than women as their leaders. On Women’s Day women receive flowers and presents from men. All scientists, artists, presidents, poets, etc are born from women, so we must respect women.”
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