La Journée de la Femme

Today is the 101st International Womens Day, a day celebrating women world wide. Surprisngly enough, it started in the Unitied States in 1909 by the Socialist Party. The celebration grew with each year and became much more poignant after the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, which killed over 140 women workers who were forced to work in a locked building and jumped from 8th story windows.

The clebration dwindled during the War Years and was celebrated like Mothers day in the Communist bloc countries, but has experienced a growing revival and support  since the 1960's in many countries all over the world.

Today in France, abortions became easier to get and more profitable for the doctors who perform them. The government pays for abortions and doubled the fee paid to doctors. This would seem to be the epitome of the Evangelical argument that abortion is racial suicide, but paradoxically, here, the French enjoy one of the highest per capita birthrates in the world as well as one of the lowest infant mortality rates on the planet. They are #7.

This contrasts with the shrinking birthrate of the United States and the almost third world infant mortality rate of 42 (from the CIA factbook).

The difference? Women are allowed control of their bodies. They are not property, breeding stock owned by men. A child is concieved and born when the parent wants to ave a child. The government takes responsibility for the welfare of the child with subsidies, free health care and allowances for the parenting process. A father gets paternity leave from his job.

So, on this day, I'd like to celebrate the life of a French woman, who you may have heard of, Florence Aubenas. She is a brave investigative reporter who made the news back in 2005 in Iraq when she and her translator/driver were kidnapped by Al Qaida. She was held for 157 days and was praised by her fellow hostages as being a beacon of hope. They were ransomed and released. 

Florence was interviewed and then disappeared for a while. She recently resurfaced with a new book, Le Quai de Ouistreham. A book in which she recounts the 6 months which she became Madame Aubenas, Femme de Menage. She entered the world of temporary unskilled employment. 

In many ways, it was the most unfamiliar world she had ever encountered. For her job, Florence Aubenas had traveled to many faraway places: it goes with the territory of being a reporter. In a 20-year career with different newspapers (first Libération and later Le Nouvel Observateur), she had visited lawless housing projects, war zones, police stations, courts and factories on strike.


But this time, there were no planes to catch for a destination that was almost on her own doorstep: Caen, a two-hour drive from Paris. Strangely enough, this town was to be the venue for the most psychologically demanding and difficult report she had ever undertaken. For nearly six months, Florence Aubenas became: "Madame Aubenas," age 48, no specific qualifications — an unemployed woman among others, dozens of others, none of whom recognized her. Day after day, she immersed herself in the formless mass of job seekers, who drift from one underpaid temporary job to another — the legions of the non-skilled unemployed who have no hope of finding real jobs, just odd hours here and there — that is if they are lucky.

She managed to survive and revealed her identity only to some of the women she worked with because she felt so strongly about compromising their dignity. The book is a real eye opener exposing the conditions and the attitudes of the employers and the exploitative agencies and the showing the stoic humor and acceptance of those who struggle every day just to keep from going under!

I hope it is translated into English because the realities are not culture specific, they are gender specific!

This is the #1 best selling book in France today.