In her message in celebration of Women’s Day, Michelle Bachelet, UN Women Executive Director states:

My message today is simple and straightforward. This year on International Women’s Day, we say enough is enough. Discrimination and violence against women and girls has no place in the 21^st century. It is time for Governments to keep their promises and protect human rights in line with the international conventions and agreements that they signed onto. A promise is a promise.

The fall-out from gendercide continues as the Washington Post reports of the Middle Class’ preference for boys. The growing gap is compensated with yet another human rights violation: trafficking. As the BBC reports there is a growing trend to kidnap girls and young women to bring them to other parts of the country to “stand in” for the girls and women missing due to gendercide.

The BBC reports that new census data from India confirms the predictions over the imbalance in the gender ratio caused by female infanticide: eight million girls under the age of eight are “missing” due to a culture, which makes parents dread the birth of a girl due to dowry payments.

In a piece on high-impact advertisement the BBC highlights the overrated value that diamonds have based on  – the admittedly brilliant (sic!) – marketing strategies. The human rights, gender and value implications of that industry are a long time favourite of mine.

As the red carpet rolls out ahead of women’s day and briefly also for the Academy Awards, Kim Elsesser – a research scholar at the Center for Study of Women at the University of California – highlights the separation of the best actor and best actress in an Op-Ed in the NYTimes.

Picture credit Kelly Blair/NYTimes

Ahead of the Super Bowl game the Washington Post pointedly observes a “grass ceiling,” i.e. that female sports reporters are confined to reporting from the sidelines rather than being involved in live commentary and other content reporting.

Today is Equal Pay Day: due to the gender gap in income in Austria – women continue to earn significantly less in all sectors except the public sector – women are essentially working for free as of today until the end of the year. Although this fact would obviously be a significant contribution to public discourse, the ongoing election campaign is aparently standing in the way of adequate attention on Equal Pay Day. Note that according to the last census women do comprise half of the populace.

The Washington Post reports on an Anti-Wedding. Two reporters set out to plan no-frills nuptials for a couple in Washington, D.C. Human rights are a prominent  and multiple wedding feature. The focus is not necessarily the woman’s equal right to enter into marriage, the right to freely choose a spouse, etc (Article 16 CEDAW) – that appears to have been upheld alright. The anti-wedding entails a protest in public space, which is okayed by the public authorities, exchanging vows as part thereof poses problems. “Let’s protest this wanton abridgement of basic human rights, the industry and the government that make it near impossible to be sensible and get married,” the authors – understandably – fume. They call on the American Civil Liberties Union and at long last: happily married forever after!

The European Parliament just came up with required reading for the BIPA’s and Tele2’s of this world: the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equality has produced a Report on how marketing and advertising affect equality between women and men; English & German versions are available.

The United Nations has a special Convention on the Rights of Women. It is applicable in most countries around the world. One of its many important provisions states that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.” 

Basic information on the Convention’s features has now been made available by the Austrian Ministry for Women’s Affairs, in German, Turkish, Bosnian, Serbian & Croatian. The booklet may be ordered here.

One of the many potential readers is the marketing department of Austrian telecommunication provider Tele2. In response to criticism of their overtly sexist EURO 2008^TM campaign, which may be found here, the marketing department declared inter alia that because they are all women it could not be sexist and undignified. Go figure!

BIPA, a cosmetic and household goods chain – BIPA is short for BIllige PArfümerie, literally: cheap perfumer – celebrated father’s day during the ongoing soccer frenzy. Customers received a set of cards plus whistle. To play “the” game. At home. 

The equivalent of soccer’s red says on the front “quiet!” and on the back “DARLING! Your lips are so sensual and beautiful. But did you know that they are most beautiful when you keep them closed?” A pink card reads “sex” on one side and on the other: “DARLING! You have distracted me for 90 minutes with your good looks. I’d be happy if we could declare the soccer game as foreplay and could get to it straight.” Finally, a yellow card with “beer!” on the front, states on the backside: “You have beautifully soigné legs: be so kind and fetch me a cool drink from the fridge, so I can see your elegant running style.” 

BIPA dubbed the package “Championship-Anti-Misunderstanding-Set.” 

Critical commentary by Austrian journalists Sibylle Hamann & Doris Knecht has apparently already yielded regret by BIPA’s all female marketing departmenton over possible “misunderstandings.”