International Day of Women's Rights
Italy is preparing to paint with small and delicate yellow flowers: symbol of the anniversary linked to the International Day of Women's Rights - at least in our latitudes -, in these days we meet the mimosa at the corners of all our streets.
Celebrated in every corner of the world for just over a century, the origins of this party have long been controversial. There are those who believe that the party descends from a fire broke out in a New York textile industry that killed 146 women; Others will bring it back to an alleged union event always of New York textile workers of 1857.
In reality, the origin of 8 March originates in the Russian feminist protests of 1911. More than a million women and men participated in the various events that supported the campaign for women's right to work, vote, be trained professionally, to perform public functions and be free from discrimination, claiming greater rights in a patriarchal company.
In any case, it would be too difficult to reconstruct precisely the origins of an anniversary that has slowly enlarged to the whole world. What interests us most is to celebrate its value, input, in many cases, to achieve the victory of many important battles, which all aimed at a goal: political, economic and social equality between people, indiscriminately by their kind .
There are several goals marked over time: the right to instruction, that of vote, of the divorce and, to mention the most important of the last, the establishment of criminal measures connected to the gender violence.
Well, although more than a hundred years have passed, women have not stopped fighting: each leads his great and small daily battles to thin that inequality that still persists. Although intermittent signs of improvement are recorded, the epidemiological scenario puts us in front of new challenges: for this reason we cannot fail to think of the risks that the female figures run once again.
If even before the emergency linked to the Coronavirus, many have had to choose between a professional life and a family life, now several repercussions, including the frequent closure of schools, could reflect on women. For example, these, according to recent surveys, said they had dealt with during the first Lockdown for 62 hours per week of their children struggling with teaching at a distance, compared to the 36 of men, at the expense of their work.
In short, today it is more unfair than ever to compare ourselves with the choice of work or the family, it is unfair to be associated with the responsibilities of home or children care, it is unfair to be paid less and cover less prestigious roles because they are women.
As we have seen, you just need to dwell on the topic so that dozens of unresolved problems, of unrecognized rights, emerge: for their resolution, for their achievement it is necessary once again to make our voices heard, without resigning the current conditions.
That on March 8, with or without mimosas, is the opportunity to reflect on the role we want to hold.
