What's The Occasion? International Women's Day

Although it seems both superfluous and patronizingly minimalistic to celebrate International Women's Day in this age of grrrl power, when female empowerment is as rampant as misandry, but when Clara Zetkin first suggested the idea in 1911 it was truly revolutionary; in those days women didn't even have the right to vote in most countries, many were employed in demeaning work, and those who couldn't even get that got to do their demeaning work for free at home, where the spectre of domestic violence hung over them always...

This is not to say that the situation has been entirely remedied; equal pay for equal work is still a hot-button issue, and a husband's hands may still wreak havoc on a wife's life today, especially in much of the developing world. But only the most hardcore devotee of Valerie Solanas could deny that the world in 2008 is a much better place for women than it was in 1908, especially in North America and Europe.

Here at the Pop Culture Institute we value all people every day, and encourage our readers present and future to do the same; still, it's nice to set aside a portion of the year, whether it be March 8th or indeed the entire month of March - Women's History Month in the US - or October (in Canada) to value and celebrate the half of our species too frequently left out of the history they are at least half responsible for creating.

Nevertheless, we feel the need to remind mothers that they are best suited for making their sons into decent men, and sincerely hope they take every opportunity to do so in the future.
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