5 Questions after International Women’s Day

That’s what the day does for me: it leaves me with questions. Basically they are all rooted in the same inner controversy of feeling honored and humiliated at the same time. Honored because of the attention, admiration and concern that is given to women, yet humiliated by the realization that things are pretty bad, if it is necessary to nominate a special day for this purpose.

Women & Technology?

I find this one tricky, don’t you? As a little girl I had no doubt as to which kind of toys were meant for girls and which for boys: Girls played with dolls and were creative, while boys took stuff apart and built things. No one would give me an electrical toy train for my birthday; I would play with my brothers whenever he let me. Who decided, that toy trains were not for me, just because I was girl?
When Star Wars was popular, my brother and I both built entire fleets of spaceships from paper and cruised the galaxies in the entire house for months.

Taking a closer look, though, the way he played was completely different from mine. His spaceships had a clear definition of speed, power and all kinds of technical parameters - mine had a beautiful design and carefully chosen names as well as a clear purpose. His spaceships fought wars; mine investigated the universe and send help to wherever it was needed.

An ever growing number of women are being honored for their achievements not only on this day, yet I found few who receive their recognition due to achievements in technology. A list of Top Ten TED talks by women included only one such woman: an MITprofessor with a fascination for robots. But guess what her robots are designed for? They are personal robots helping people; their purpose is to improve communication and interaction.

Women & Career?

It does seem that most women who have a successful career are not in technology. But there is no question, that women can build a career for themselves, if they choose to - at least in western society. In many cases I still wonder how they do it, though. The question for which I have not found an answer is whether a woman can have a career and still keep her family at first priority. Reading the stories of successful women, there often is a break in the plot, where they take time off to raise their children. For each of these, there are many more, whose stories will not be told, because they never managed to get back on the career train afterwards. How many male career stories do you know, that include such a break?

The issue is hot enough even for internet giant Google to do something about it or at least show awareness.  And thanks to international women’s day I learned about “Google Campus for Moms”, a workshop empowering young mothers who are also entrepreneurs. I am not at all sure they have the answer.

 

Women & Equality?

Does this mean women need to be treated special in order to be equal? The thought makes me shiver a little. It’s not like women are a minority. Neither are they less intelligent or less gifted. Or are they? There still is no consensus about that. While it is not politically correct to question women’s intelligence and abilities in a western society, it is still the way it thinks and acts in many areas of life. Why else do women still get paid less for doing the same job and why do they have such a hard time even getting certain jobs?

But equality is really a relative term. For most women in the world technology and career are not even part of their existence and the question of equality for many  evolves around being allowed to vote, drive a car, get an education or make a choice about their own lives and bodies.

 

Women & Human Rights?

But isn’t that what makes us human? The ability to make a choice, rather than act on pure instinct or conditioned behavior is what separates us from the rest of the animal world. Yet women are still denied the right to use this very ability in too many African, Arab and Asian countries. Their freedom is reduced to an extent where they do not even have a voice to speak out and make themselves heard on the day of their honor. Who is to speak up for human rights and expose violence against women in countries, where girls are made to feel sub-human? I recall few.  One belongs to Liberian Nobel Prize winner Leymah Gbowee; another to an unbelievable courageous teenage girl fleeing Pakistan after an attempt to assassinate her for speaking up.

Could it be that people really believe women to be less human? It seems unfathomable, but that’s what the evidence indicates.

 

Women & Abuse?

From this attitude the path to abuse is very short. While I am contemplating whether girls playing with dolls and boys playing war is just an imposture by society or deeply rooted in the divine purpose of life, millions of girls are sold, raped, forced to prostitution or similar labor, trafficked, mutilated, killed or simply left to die. The dimensions of abuse and brutality are hard to grasp. How can this be?

The movement “Half the Sky” has put the problem on the tables of influential and famous women around the world and inspired them to act. Watching their documentary has changed the way I feel about being a woman. It has made me humbly grateful for the way I live and the possibilities I have. It has also sharpened my awareness of female vulnerability. I came to understand that only the strength of women in modern societies can change the fate of those treated like property or worse. Only women leaving their mark on technology, striving for a career, fighting for complete equality and against the violation of human rights can state the case for those who have no voice and confront the abusers.

I am left with more questions than answers, but also one important realization: improving the status of women around the world would improve human society as such.

 

Break a leg! - do I have to?

 

We could put the question to this amazing almond tree in its full blossom. It had every possible branch broken by a merciless snowstorm and was literally crushed to the ground. Not only did it prevail, it seems to have found a new way to define its own beauty.

These days nature in and around Jerusalem is beginning to dress itself in its spring colors and it is hard to image what it looked like two months ago, when it was attacked by the heaviest winter weather in about 100 years.

Last weekend I was drawn outside by the spring air to take a glimpse at the beauty of nature being born again. This incredible almond tree instantly caught my attention and fascination. At first I did not even understand what I was looking at. Only upon getting closer did it become clear that the branches of this lovely princess of trees had been bent under the weight of the snow and simply brought to the ground. Yet, the suffering princess did not lose her determination to pioneer spring and brought forth an abundance of blossoms at first chance. Since she stands at a slope, the delicate blossoms seem to flow down the hill, thus decorating it in a most elegant fashion.

“How profound”, I thought. Doesn’t this tree express something that philosophers have tried to put in words far as long as words exist? It holds a wisdom in it that people are constantly rephrasing. Just recently I read an article about having to fail in order to succeed.

As I walked on I came across an even clearer illustration of the same message. This fragile youngster was affected even more severely; its crown seemed completely fallen. But that did not keep its flowers from opening up in a call for the continuation of the life cycle.  

 

What profound aphorism would I use as title to the picture, when I share it on my Facebook page? Who should I best quote to express in words what happened here?  Could I even find something that isn’t already completely chewed up and make everyone go “awwwww” and scroll down to the next profound bla on their walls? Probably not.

 The truth is we’d all rather be beautiful and successful without having our branches broken and crowns crushed. But the trees are still awesome.