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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Why I wish International Women's Day didn't exist, by Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph

Another perspective:

Exceprts from the article:



"That’s very sweet of you, Mr Modi, but we don’t want your gratitude for our existence. Women are half the human race, not some minority that requires patting on the head like a pigtailed infant coming second in the egg and sperm race.

Instead of earnest events organised by the sisters to draw attention to victimhood, I like to get to the end of Radio 4’s Today programme and hear in passing, as I did today, that the BBC’s flagship news programme was presented by two women, and also edited by two women.

There you go. That’s what you want. No special pleading, no big deal about whether anyone’s got a penis or not. Just a display of high competence so you neither know, nor care, whether male or female is in charge."

How fatuous is it for women in advanced western countries to pretend that they belong in the same boat as women in Saudi Arabia where, according to Sharia law, a woman’s testimony in court is valued at half that of a man?

I want every girl to have the same opportunities as every boy. I want there to be a female President of the United States and for it not to matter whether she’s “nice”, or like Donald Trump. I would like every company’s board to have 50 per cent female directors, and for that to be called “a board”, not “diversity”.

But IWD is not the answer. By claiming special status for us, by insisting on victimhood, International Women’s Day perpetuates the very attitudes it’s battling against. Women are not necessarily better than men, and certainly no worse. In that, and that alone, lies the hope of true equality.

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