In honor of International Women’s Day, I’d like to share a few tweets that taught me something new.
1. I knew there wasn’t gender parity at the United Nations, but I hadn’t stopped to count how many general assembly presidents have been women. *sigh*
Only 36 of 193 reps at @UN are women. Over 70 years only 2 #UNGA presidents have been women. We can't be satisfied w/these numbers. #IWD2016
— Samantha Power (@AmbPower44) March 8, 2016
2. Gender inequity is particularly severe if we consider land ownership and land rights.
About 80% of farmers in #Uganda are women, producing 60% of food but they only own 1% of land #IWDUganda16 #IWD2016 #LandRightsNow
— Rosebell Kagumire (@RosebellK) March 8, 2016
3. But women all over the world continue to press on … in conditions the California girl in me cannot imagine:
Russian meteorologist in Yakutia. Temp -50°C!!. Our #WomenInAction album for #IWD2016 at https://t.co/KcsB4DL0k2 pic.twitter.com/JMjZCyvCxO
— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) March 8, 2016
4. I’m grateful to the Twitterstorians for teaching us about some of the pioneers. For example, in 1885, women from India, Japan and Syria were the first women in their countries to earn degrees in western medicine. (Bonus fact: In 1885, it cost $325.50 to get your medical degree.)
These were the first women from their countries to get degrees in western medicine. #IWD2016 https://t.co/RKOCH29POa pic.twitter.com/UnNBRFmHZm
— The World (@TheWorld) March 8, 2016
5. And what kind of holiday doesn’t involve sharing findings from a nationally representative survey? In this poll conducted in February, 59 percent of Americans supported using foreign aid for access to safe abortion.
Americans are more supportive of abortion access for rape victims than US political leaders https://t.co/Jotw4fuXUV #IWD2016 #helmshurts
— Jina Moore (@itsjina) March 8, 2016
6. On a lighter note, the “League of Extravagant Grannies” in Kenya is my new favorite spin on the “Where are they now?” genre:
Happy March 8th. They may be grannies now but these ladies didn't come to play. Osborne Macharia's gorgeous lens. https://t.co/z8pyixt82P
— Ebba Kalondo (@EbbaKalondo) March 8, 2016
7. Also, I had never heard the term MAOW before today.
and once we get rid of all male panels (#Manels), next challenge is tokenistic MAOWs (Men and One Woman) #IWD2016 pic.twitter.com/nHeRAEnY9K
— Duncan Green (@fp2p) March 8, 2016
8. Nor did I know that there is also an International Men’s Day!
Happy #InternationalWomensDay aka: day when Google searches for "Int'l Men's Day" peak. Fear not fellas, it's in Nov. (+every other day)
— Emily Beaulieu Bacchus (@EBeautifulPlace) March 8, 2016
9. Or that the World War I equivalents of Rosie the Riveter were called “munitionettes.”
The women workers of WWI are the definition of empowerment: https://t.co/A6yHSabgMv #IWD2016 pic.twitter.com/jwSPciy0OC
— Mashable (@mashable) March 8, 2016
10. While we’ve come a long way, we still have a ways to go. One important way forward is valuing unpaid work.
"On average, women spend 3.3 times as much time doing unpaid work as men do." https://t.co/WsbGTs2UN7
— Rakesh Rajani (@rakeshrajani) March 8, 2016
BONUS: I didn’t learn about #WomenAlsoKnowStuff on International Women’s Day. (In fact, I’m on the editorial board, and together we wrote this earlier explainer post about our initiative to amplify the voices and expertise of women political scientists.) BUT — we did launch our new and improved website on Tuesday to commemorate International Women’s Day. We hope you’ll check it out.
[interstitial_link url=”https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/02/11/heres-a-list-of-smart-women-political-scientists-they-know-stuff-too/”]Here’s a list of smart women political scientists. They know stuff, too.[/interstitial_link]
.@APSAtweets – this #IWD2016 please share our new and improved website! https://t.co/xmcosjk7yt pic.twitter.com/whEJmbTt68
— womenalsoknowstuff (@womenalsoknow) March 8, 2016