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international women s day
A Ribbon of Love Against Sexist Violence
On International Women’s Day in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 600 people came together to take a stand against violence against women and to call for education, not the penal system, as the primary way to eradicate it.
Mar 27, 2024
On March 8, the 50th anniversary of International Women’s Day, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, I participated in the Lazo de Amor Contra la Violencia Machista—the Ribbon of Love Against Sexist Violence. Six hundred people came together to take a loving stand against violence against women and against all forms of violence based in the traditional “machista” masculine gender role. Together, we called for the promotion of education, not the penal system, as the primary way to eradicate it.
The demonstration was organized by a team of seasoned activists, and sponsored by the Teachers’ Association of Puerto Rico (AMPR), the main teachers’ union. It took place on the grounds of the historic El Morro fort, symbol of Spanish colonization. We listened to a series of impassioned speeches from educators, activists, and students, decrying the epidemic of sexist violence in all its forms; calling out the failures of the penal system to rehabilitate offenders and to address the roots of violence; and calling on educators, the school system, and each of us, to take up the challenge of ending sexist violence.
Then we donned purple Lazo de Amor T-shirts, provided by the organizers, and formed the shape of a bow, similar to the ribbons people wear to represent commitment to a cause like AIDS awareness, MIA’s, and cancer survivors. We were photographed from the sky, taking our stand together. The organizers’ announced goal, represented by the Lazo, was to create an ongoing campaign for educating against sexist violence in the schools, to be expressed in yearly demonstrations.
The demonstration provided one of a multitude of potential answers to the core question that we progressive activists face as we work to shift the paradigm from fear to love: How can we use the power of love to transform our violent, fear-based practices and institutions?
Participating in the Lazo was a powerful experience for me. As an elder anti-racist, leftist feminist who has attended many demonstrations organized by many types of progressive movement over the past 50 years, I found it to be unusually empowering, uplifting, and inspiring. A demonstration against violence on the grounds of an historic colonial fort. The act of actually taking a stand together and being photographed doing felt like a work of political art. The presence of many men, also taking a stand against sexist violence. The sponsorship by a teachers’ union and preponderance of teachers and students, embodying the process being advocated for. And the naming, and calling on, of love as the true antidote to violence—rather than the greater violence of the state and the penal system. Fifty years after the declaration of the first International Women’s Day, feminism had come a long way from demonstrations where we marched in the streets to take back the night—without feminist men at our sides as our allies, and calling on the police as the main solution.
I was particularly excited by the naming of our ribbon as a ribbon of love. I am a retired professor of economics whose research has focused on the emergence, alongside of and within capitalism, of the solidarity economy—economic practices and institutions centered in cooperation, equity, democracy, sustainability, and pluralism. These new institutions are part of and require the emergence of a new paradigm of social life which is based on mutuality, unity amidst diversity, and love, within a crisis-ridden, dying paradigm based on competition, separation, violence, and fear.
So many of the metaphors and memes we use on the left to describe our work are conceptualized as a process of fighting against something, a violent activity that brings to mind traditional, macho masculinity. The naming of love as a powerful force, embodied in a purple ribbon against violence, captured my imagination, representing as it did the power of the strong feminine. Women and feminist men standing up for themselves and for others, against all forms of violence, using the power of love, caring, education, good mothering and fathering. The demonstration provided one of a multitude of potential answers to the core question that we progressive activists face as we work to shift the paradigm from fear to love: How can we use the power of love to transform our violent, fear-based practices and institutions?
I was extremely impressed by the ability of a small team of lead organizers to manifest this demonstration very quickly and beautifully. The Lazo de Amor was the brainchild of my friend Margarita Ostolaza Bey, a retired women’s studies professor and former senator, and her friend Gretchen Coll-Marti, a retired appellate judge and former executive director of Legal Services of Puerto Rico. On Valentine’s Day, only three weeks before, the two had the idea to create a Lazo de Amor Contra la Violencia Machista on International Women’s Day. Gretchen had created an AIDS Awareness Ribbon campaign during the 1990s. Held annually for eight years, it grew from 500 people to a campaign organized in all of the island’s schools that brought together 8,000 men, women, and children. The idea was to use the same method to mobilize energies to fight sexist violence.
Margarita and her wife, Ivelisse Rivera Almodovar, a retired public relations director, presented the proposal for the Lazo de Amor Contra la Violencia Machista to Professor Victor Bonilla Sanchez, the president of the Association of Teachers of Puerto Rico. He immediately and enthusiastically committed to the project. Ivelisse took on the huge task of quickly coordinating permits, sponsorships, media announcements, and the participation of spokespersons in radio, press, television, and social networks, along with the design of the ribbon. Essentially these three women came up with the idea, engaged the head of the teachers’ association, and started a campaign for feminist education against sexist violence which they hope to be ongoing and growing yearly, like Gretchen’s AIDS Awareness campaign, in the space of three weeks. Their story makes me wonder what other kinds of campaigns could be created to help bring the paradigm shift we all need.
Another interesting aspect of the Lazo de Amor Contra la Violencia Machista that I would like to flag is the involvement of corporate sponsors. In my experience, left and progressive circles have tended to avoid funding from for-profit businesses, focusing instead on non-profits. But for-profit firms inhabit a spectrum of positions on the value scale from “low-road,” narrowly profit-motivated firms—union-busting, polluting, price-gouging, etc.—to high-road businesses that embody the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits. Students from the School at the University of Puerto Rico designed the Lazo, but Goya de Puerto Rico stepped up to provide financial support, and El Nuevo Dia, the main newspaper on the island; Channel 2 TV; and Radio Isla all provided free air time to promote it. We need to remember that progressive, for-profit businesses and social enterprises can be valuable allies in the paradigm shift, even though they are capitalist, and can and should be called upon for support.
One question you may be asking—how did this demonstration relate to the political parties of the island, and to the question of the island’s political status? Puerto Rico’s people have been deeply divided into political parties based on the issue of how to relate to the U.S.: the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP), aligned with the U.S. Republican Party); the pro-Commonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PPD), aligned with the U.S. Democratic Party; the pro-independence Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), aligned loosely with the left in the U.S.; or the new Citizens’ Victory Movement (MVC) party. This demonstration attempted to bridge these political divides and was not affiliated with any political party.
There were other demonstrations across the island commemorating International Women’s Day’s 50th anniversary. A coalition of left feminist groups, the Coalition of the 8th of March, put on a press conference. One of their members, the Colectiva Feminista en Construcción (Feminist Collective Under Construction), held a demonstration and blocked a highway, protesting against a wide range of oppressions, including the occupation of Palestine, Puerto Rico’s colonial status, and racism, along with sexism, violence against women, and anti-trans violence. Is there a place in our feminist imaginations and strategizing both for this show of force and courage, and for the Lazo de Amor? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each in terms of shifting the paradigm?
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'What International Women's Day?' Asks Gaza Amid Israeli Genocide
"At least 9,000 women have been killed; many more are under the rubble," said UNRWA. "On average, 63 women are killed in Gaza per day—37 are mothers who leave their families behind."
Mar 08, 2024
Friday is International Women's Day, but Gaza residents enduring Israel's genocidal onslaught aren't celebrating, they're struggling to keep themselves and their children alive and pleading with the world for an immediate cease-fire to relieve their suffering.
"On International Women's Day, the women in Gaza continue to endure the consequences of this brutal war," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on social media. "At least 9,000 women have been killed; many more are under the rubble. On average, 63 women are killed in Gaza per day—37 are mothers who leave their families behind."
Iman Zakout, a displaced Palestinian woman now living in a tent in a makeshift camp in Rafah after being forcibly displaced by Israeli bombing, toldTRT World that "on March 8, there is no Women's Day for us."
"Women's Day is outside Palestine," she added. "In Palestine, we do not have Women's Day, especially in Gaza."
“In Palestine, we do not have Women’s Day.”
Iman Zakout, a displaced Palestinan now living in a tent in Gaza, shared her thoughts on the plight of Palestinian women ahead of International Women’s Day.
At least 9,000 women have been killed by Israel since October 7, including an… pic.twitter.com/2d3jXS48Qe
— TRT World (@trtworld) March 8, 2024
Another refugee, Umm Ahmed Zakout, said: "Women cannot hold onto their children. The houses have been bombed. This is a war of extermination. This is not just a war."
"These are people. They have all been destroyed. Every generation is killed," she added. "Every generation grows up and is then killed. Are they not humans? You bring up your child with your heart, and within moments, within minutes, he is gone, and the house he is in is gone."
In addition to bombs and bullets, Gazans now also face the threat of starvation caused by the Israeli siege and the blockage of humanitarian aid convoys by Israel Defense Forces soldiers and extremist civilians. Gaza health officials said Thursday that at least 21 people—most of them young children—have died of malnutrition and dehydration in recent days.
Pregnant women and their developing fetuses are particularly vulnerable. Health officials said Thursday that 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza are suffering from dehydration, malnutrition, and lack of adequate medical care. The results are increasingly catastrophic—Gaza's youngest known starvation fatality was reportedly just 1 day old.
"Is this a suitable life for a pregnant woman? A tent, cold, open air, and the lack of the basic necessities of life?" Etemad Assaf, who at eight months pregnant is a refugee sheltering in Deir el-Balah, asked in an interview with Al Jazeera. "My little daughter, who is 11 months old, needs diapers, and they are expensive. We can barely afford food, and sometimes there is no food to eat at all."
"My big concern now is my impending birth and the dire conditions around me, particularly given what we hear about the complete collapse of hospitals in Gaza," Assaf continued. "The healthcare system is crumbling. There is not even a proper place to rest after delivery."
Often, there isn't even a proper place to give birth, as reports of women left with no choice but to deliver in tents, public toilets, and rubble-strewn streets attest. The lack of medications has also forced pregnant women to undergo Caesarian sections without anesthesia.
Gaza's women and girls have also been subjected to from the arbitrary detention, sexual abuse, and even execution that witnesses and survivors say Israeli troops committed against Palestinian men and boys.
At demonstrations around the world on Friday, protesters amplified calls by Gaza's women for solidarity and a cease-fire.
"My message for the world on March 8 is to look at the women and girls of Gaza on this day, acknowledge them and be in solidarity with them," Amal Shawareb, UNRWA's deputy protection team leader in Gaza, said in a video posted on social media. "They call on the world not to look away."
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The Fate of Nations Is Tied to the Status of Women
The degree of women’s equality predicts best how peaceful or conflict-ridden their countries are.
Mar 08, 2024
On March 8, 1908, women garment workers marched through New York City’s Lower East Side to protest child labor and sweatshop working conditions and to demand women’s suffrage. By 1910, March 8 became observed annually as International Women’s Day and continues to be, more widely in other countries—often with protests—than in the United States. Why, I wonder?
In the spirit of International Women’s Day, let’s look at a brief profile of women’s status today and the consequences for our country and the world.
If I asked my brothers, my many nephews, male friends, and colleagues, did they think women are as capable as men, I wager that most, if not all, would say, “Yes.” Beyond doubt we women have all the talent, intelligence, and potential for leadership and political responsibility as men. But I have also learned from recent history that, in some cases—such as negotiating an end to conflict; working toward long-standing peace; and prioritizing health, education, and social welfare in government—women outperform men.
When will men dare to use the wisdom and skill of women to end their wars and create peace agreements that endure?
I would go so far as to say that the fate of nations is tied to the status of women. Studies back this up. A team of researchers has created the largest global database on the status of women called WomanStats. Their findings are profoundly illuminating for global security and world peace. In a sentence: the degree of women’s equality predicts best how peaceful or conflict-ridden their countries are. Consider that feminist revolutions to gain human rights and equality for women and girls have freed and saved the lives of millions of women and girls—without weapons, without fists, without a drop of blood spilled.
Let’s bring the injustice of female inequality down to the personal level, where millions of women and girls here and throughout the world experience sexual violence, sex trafficking, and prostitution; neglect of girls because of son preference; and preventable maternal mortality. Ponder this shocking finding: More lives were lost in the 20th century through male violence against women in all its forms than during 20th century wars and civil strife. Yet, while thousands of monuments in parks and plazas throughout the United States honor those who gave their lives for their country, only one—the first of its kind—is being planned for women who lost their lives giving birth to their country’s children.
The scourge of men raping women and girls is now compounded in those U.S. states that have denied or greatly diminished the reproductive right to abortion. It is estimated that there were 65,000 rape-related pregnancies between July 2022 and January 2024 in U.S. states banning abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 50-year women’s right to make their own reproductive decisions.
Looking into women’s economic status, we find that women have higher rates of poverty than men across most races and ethnicities, with women of color having the highest. Women are hired at a lower level than male counterparts and paid less for the same work, and this wage discrepancy follows them throughout their work life. Domestic violence causes women to lose an average of 8 million days of paid work per year and is a strong factor in women’s homelessness.
Not only do more women than men struggle to cover everyday expenses due to the gender wage gap, which has remained stagnant for 20 years—at about 82%—but the gap compounds over a lifetime, a significant factor contributing to the disparity in poverty rates among women and men age 75 and older.
Women’s birth of and care for children are not compensated with paid parental leave in the United States, unlike all other comparable countries; thus, women who give birth are cheated out of savings, pensions, and Social Security. No surprise then that the greatest risk factor for being poor in old age is having been a mother.
On a personal note: My fairest employer was my brother Michael: When I delivered papers for him in seventh and eighth grades, he paid me the same rate as himself. Bless you, Mike.
- Fairer than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency New England, which hired me a grade below a comparable male environmental engineer employed at the same time. (When I confronted the director about the inequity, he responded, “Doesn’t your husband work?”)
- Fairer than my next employer, which hired me at a significantly lower salary than a comparable male colleague, forcing me to enter into (successful) litigation to win equal pay for equal work and retroactive compensation.
Finally, studies of women and men negotiating post-conflict agreements found that all-male groups take riskier, less empathic, and more aggressive positions. Their negotiatons also break down more quickly than those that include women. Interestingly, men are more satisfied with decisions made with women involved than by all-male groups.
So where are the women in negotiations for permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, return of Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Israeli jails, and life-saving aid to Gaza? Where are the women in efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to an end? When will men dare to use the wisdom and skill of women to end their wars and create peace agreements that endure?
International Women’s Day is not only about the arithmetic of equality but also about its consequences—justice for women and girls and a better future for all in our country and the world.
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