International Women's Day

I love being a woman.  People would probably consider me feminist.  I think I raged on it a lot more in high school, but haven't done a whole lot of thinking about it recently.  I feel a little obligated to represent women in a lot of what I do on a daily basis.  I work in a male-dominated field, and am currently one of two women on a team of sixteen.  My culinary classes are also male dominated, in both students and faculty.

Tomorrow, March 8th, is International Women's Day (IWD).  I heard about it from one of my favorite people  to follow on Twitter, Padmasree Warrior, who is Cisco's CTO (and one of the top 5 women to follow).  According to Wikipedia, the holiday started in former Soviet countries as a kind of blend of Valentine's Day and Mother's day in 1909.  The United Nations declared 1975 International Women's Year and has sponsored International Women's Day ever since.   2010's theme as designated by the UN is "Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all." 

For the rest of this blog, I will be sharing articles on women's issues.  They're listed below by topic.  If you have an article that you want to share, let me know and I'll add it to this list (with credit, of course)!

Women Displaced by Armed Conflict
"Women displaced by armed conflict – often living alone with their children – are frequently exposed to sexual violence, discrimination and intimidation." International Committee of the Red Cross

Gender Equality
"One of the first lessons that girls often learn in elementary school is that boys are better at math." Scientific American.
"70 per cent of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide are female." Red Cross
"Men are from Earth, and So are Women." Anarchist Writers

Women in the Workforce
"Manuela Maier was branded a bad mother. ... Her crime? Signing up her 9-year-old son when the local primary school first offered lunch and afternoon classes last autumn — and returning to work." New York Times
"Why do Indian women keep quitting their careers for marriage?" Priya Ramani
View a Live Feed of Women in Particle Physics CERN
Pledge for Ada Lovelace Day FindingAda.com
Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar with The Hurt Locker.
Tips for a Top Career - Padmasree Warrior

Reproductive Freedom & Health
"Today, more than half a million women living in poverty will die from pregnancy-related causes and the vast majority of these deaths are preventable." CARE USA
A review of Monique and the Mango Rains includes discussion of the midwife profession and genital mutilation in Mali.  Amanda Gignac, The Zen Leaf

Other
Proven Steps to Advance Women Around the World New York Times
Womanity  Girl Geekdom