The Fearless Girl statue appeared overnight just down the road from Wall Street, defiantly staring down the famous bronze bull.
The statue of a young girl, hands on hips, was instantly providing a good PR story for investment company State Street Global Advisors, who installed the statue for International Women’s Day and called on companies to put more women on their boards.
But it also provided a nice background for New York journalists in search of an International Women’s Day story.
The Guardian was asked by two separate news organizations for interviews when it popped down to visit, with Buzzfeed livestreaming the statue on its site.
Thanks to the bull, that corner of Broadway is always pumping with tourists, but Fearless Girl made the crowds even worse than normal.
Hundreds took part in an International Women’s Day rally at Candelaria square in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Guardian correspondent Jon Watts reports:
At a demonstration in central Rio de Janeiro, several hundred women protested against sexual violence, unequal wages and the current government of President Michel Temer, who ousted his female running mate Dilma Rousseff last year. “Temer is a coup monger and a misogynist,” said student Kharine Dantes. “He wants to repeal quotas for women parliamentarians and to outlaw the morning-after pill.”
Outside the City council building in Rio de Janeiro, Workers Party activists handed out black balloons each marked with a different statistic about violence against women in Brazil: a rape every two hours, three-fifths of young women suffering violence from their partners and 40% of police women tend victims of sexual harassment. “This is a day of struggle as well as celebration,” said Micaela Costa. “The problem of violence and harassment is terrible but at least it is becoming more visible.”
Dozens of women gathered in Lafayette Square in front of the White House to protest a US policy that bans international NGOs from providing abortion services or offering information about abortions if they receive US funding.
President Trump imposed what critics call the “global gag rule” in an executive order he signed just after taking office.
The policy has put thousands of international healthcare workers in a difficult position; they must decide whether to continue to offer family planning care that includes abortion or to preserve a critical funding stream. The US is the single largest donor to global health efforts. But many international health advocates insist that their efforts are not comprehensive without abortion services.
Justin Trudeau Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during an event on International Women’s day in Ottawa, Wednesday March 8, 2017. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP) Photograph: Adrian Wyld/AP
Despite being a self-declared feminist with a gender balanced cabinet, Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government have fallen short when it comes to translating rhetoric into real change for the country’s women, according to a new “feminist scorecard” from Oxfam Canada.
Many in the country were hopeful when the prime minister publicly proclaimed himself a feminist after being elected in 2015, said Lauren Ravon of Oxfam. Many hoped the result would be a government committed to tackling some of the deep-rooted issues facing Canadians.
The feminist scorecard offers a means to hold the prime minister to account by tracking annual progress on these issues and others. “We knew from experience that it’s one thing to say something but words don’t get you very far in the end, you still need to follow it up with concrete action,” said Ravon. “There’s a lot of people looking to Canada, so we want to say, what is the distance between the rhetoric and actual policy-making on the ground?”
The first scorecard, released this week, noted that the government has yet to back its “bold feminist rhetoric” with concrete policy and spending decisions. The government has so-far demonstrated solid progress in just one area: Women’s representation and leadership. “You can’t overstate the importance of the first gender balanced cabinet in Canadian history,” said Ravon. The government fared worst in the category of jobs, where Oxfam noted that no tangible steps have been taken to address the gender wage gap or ensure living wages for the working poor, the majority of whom are women.
Still, the organisation was hopeful that the government would steadily improve its performance on the scorecard in the coming years. “For the most part we’ve seen good first signs. Things are moving in the right direction,” said Ravon. “As the Liberal government embarks on the second year of its mandate, it is time to turn feminist words into action.”
Meanwhile, First Lady Sophie Gregoire Trudeau caused titters when she called on Canadians to celebrate International Women’s Day by celebrating “the boys and men in our lives who encourage us to be who we truly are, who treat girls & women with respect, and who aren’t afraid to speak up in front of others”.
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Many US female journalists are in a tricky spot today: should they go on strike in solidarity or work to cover women focused stories that otherwise would be ignored?
Different media outlets, particularly women-focused ones, are trying out different methods.
Bustle is on strike. MTV adjusted its logo to make it a W for women. Glamour colored its logo red in solidarity with the women’s strike, and all its coverage is focused on International Women’s Day and the strike.
New York Magazine’s The Cut is on strike, “to show solidarity with the women around the world who are standing up for equal pay and equal opportunity, reproductive freedom, an end to sexual assaults, an end to bigotry of all kinds, and policies that support our families like parental leave, health care, and child care.”
Although as an editorial staff we are privileged to have this platform and audience (as well as the opportunity to take a day off of work), journalism is still an industry that disproportionately awards leadership and power to men, and as a result, we still struggle to be taken seriously when we talk about politics.
Jezebel is letting male colleagues take over the site for the day, and it’s proving to be the most fascinating media experiment of the day. As editor-in-chief Emma Carmichael wrote:
Publishing for a majority women audience is quite different from publishing for Deadspin or Gizmodo, and we want them to be thoughtful about how they package news and write criticism for Jezebel on a politically meaningful day for many women around the world. We’re asking them to take that responsibility on without much of our guidance and advice, and if they stumble in that pursuit, we hope you notice. A few of our brave volunteers have confessed to being a bit nervous about this experiment, and we agree that they should be. If the site feels different or off or even just “bad” tomorrow, that is very much the point.
It’s been…interesting. The first post of the day was a somewhat self-congratulatory entry by Jim Cooke about feminists using an illustration he created. Another post is titled “So Now There’s a Girl on Wall Street”. Hamilton Nolan wrote about the left-wing woke men who describe themselves as “allies” while actually being insufferable creeps.
Here at The Guardian, our female staffers are working, but I’ve got my own personal strike motto
My personal plan for the #womensstrike tomorrow is to only interview women and tell stories about women. Let's see how it goes.
An International Women’s Day demonstration take place at the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City, Mexico. EPA/MARIO GUZMAN Photograph: Mario Guzman/EPA
More than a 100 women arrived today in Mexico City’s Historic Center, known as Zocalo, to celebrate International Women’s Day.
By mid-day, a fair organized by the Women’s Institute of Mexico City had garnered almost 80 civil organizations and government initiatives to promote awareness on safety.
“Since 2015, Mexico City is part of the global initiative for the provision of safe cities and public spaces for women,” InMujeres General Director Teresa Inchaustegui told The Guardian. “This is a topic very important for females particularly young ones who suffer the most.”
Inchaustegui said the local government is supporting women who will join the international labor strike and march scheduled to take place at 4pm next to the Angel of Independence in Reforma.
Several groups of activists including Ni una menos movement, female members of the Workers Union and the Citizen Assembly for the Rights of Women are expected to join the demands against gender violence and inequality.
“We will strike because we are fed up of violence,” Areli Castillo said.
One of the founders of the Citizen Assembly, Castillo criticized the government’s festival partly because “they see it as a party, to congratulate women but don’t need compliments, we need recognition.”
Melissa Cuevas, 31, is preparing to attend the march this afternoon as she sees it as “a way to increase awareness among the population.”
Cuevas attributes gender inequality to “a strong patriarchal approach in the society which consider that women are inferior, and based on this belief different problems arise, but the belief behind it is the main cause of it.”
In most parts of Mexico City, the day continues under the notion business as usual.
Female entrepreneur Maria del Mar Gargari said “I won’t participate because I have a small business and cannot leave it unattended.”
According to statistics from the National Citizen Observatory of Femicides, seven Mexican women are killed everyday because of gender-based violence.
Several hundred protesters have descended on the Utah state capitol for A Day Without a Woman protest. The AP reports:
Hundreds of women dressed in red and holding signs with photos of their local lawmakers are gathering at the Utah state capitol for a Day Without a Woman protest to remind legislators they’re closely watching how they handle women’s issues.
Crowds of women stood outside both the state’s House and Senate on Wednesday to send notes to lawmakers asking them to come out to talk with them.
Salt Lake City resident Chelsi Archibald says she skipped work at her marketing job to attend the event and send a note to Republican Sen. Todd Weiler, urging his support of the Equal Rights Amendment.
International Women’s Day protests are still happening sporadically across the US. In New York, at least 10 organizers were arrested by the NYPD, said a spokeswoman for the event.
Snapchat celebrates IWD with a light-skinned Frida Kahlo, a sexy Marie Curie
On the left is Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940), on the right is the same self-portrait run through Snapchat’s filter. Composite: Alamy & Snapchat Composite: Alamy & Snapchat
Snapchat is celebrating Mexican artist Frida Kahlo on International Women’s Day with a filter that lightens the skin of users.
Snapchat debuted three custom filters for the day, which is being marked in the United States with protests and strikes. The filters allows users to take self-portraits as Kahlo, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, or scientist Marie Curie.
But on a day to celebrate international feminism, Snapchat’s filters have raised some eyebrows.
The Frida Kahlo filter lightens a user’s skin and eyes and applies bright red lipstick, a floral headdress and braids, and the artist’s signature unibrow. The skin color change is particularly noticeable on faces with darker skin – as becomes apparent when Kahlo’s own self-portrait is put through the filter.
Kahlo, who was of mixed indigenous and European heritage, painted herself with brown skin and dark eyes. Much of her work engaged with indigenous themes and imagery.
The filter for Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist applies smoky eye makeup and lengthens the eye lashes. Curie is best known for her groundbreaking research on radioactivity. She was awarded the Nobel Prize twice, once for chemistry and once for physics.
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