Thursday 6 - Week 10 - Women

Theme:
Women

1. March 8 is International Women's Day. Do you celebrate it? Yes? How?
   
   No. 
   But I will be during that day with a (female) friend. So we'll have a good time.
   
   There are things organised in my town, but they didn't bother to inform all women. I had to look for it.
   So I guess only a special kind of women is welcome. ????
   
   
2. The theme is: Give to gain.
   
   Give To Gain emphasizes the power of reciprocity and support. When people, organizations, and communities give generously, opportunities and support for women increase. Giving is not a subtraction, it's intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise. (Read more here )
   
   What do you think about this?
   
   When I give something I don't expect anything in return.
   Otherwise it's an investment.
   So the theme sounds to me as not been well thought through.
   
   
3. Is there equal pay in your country?
   
   In some areas, yes.
   In many others still not.
   They just found out this week that women who study to become judges receive more than 3% less that their male counterparts.
   
   Unequal pay has been one of the reasons I never took a job within an organisation. When I started there was a gap of 23% !!!
   
   
4. Do you know which colour is used?
   
   Yes. Purple.
   
   
5. Are you a feminist? Have you been in the past?
   
   Not really. 
   I haven't been wearing dungarees. And I haven't protested.
   
   But I have made some clear choices when it came to being a female in a men's world. Like under 3.
   
   I made choices the way I saw right. Doing things that fitted me.
   So I landed often between boys.
   I adjusted to their way of dealing with things.
   Including the language.
   
   I was the mentor at university who got all the soldiers who came out of service and started studying.
   And later I landed between male psychologists who did exactly the same as those soldiers did: trying to make me feel embarassed by making sexual jokes. I just handed them embarrassment by being a mirror.
   It stopped their annoying jokes and they started to pay respect for who I was.
   
   The same happened in England when I met the group of veterans for the first time. No sexual jokes, but testing me with all sorts of things. They didn't expect me to speak the language of the black country/speak like a miner. I did.
   So I gave one of the guys a reply that amazed him to bits. And then I was one of them.
   And now I can work with them.
   
   I am not a tomboy or anything like that, not a feminist, but I am a woman and mother and I have my skills.
   
   

. . .

About *Syl

Syl: "Life is a chain of challenges. Sometimes the largest challenges are we ourselves. Facing life, facing others and facing yourself requires either a worryless attitude or plain courage. Most of the time it is dealing with judgement. Maybe life is about getting rid of it."