Women's Day sheds socialist stigma
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To start our series on gender equality, we head to Eastern Europe, where International Women's Day is grappling with an identity crisis. The 8 March holiday fell from favour in the Czech Republic because of its Communist overtones, but now women's groups are reclaiming it as their own.
In Communist Czechoslovkia, International Women's Day was a big deal. A popular holiday throughout the Soviet bloc, the 8 March developed into a strange cross between Valentine's Day and Mother's Day with men expected to generously distribute flowers, cards and chocolates to their female relatives and colleagues.
But stop women in the street in modern-day Prague and most have only a vague idea what the day is. Very few say they mark the occasion at all. Like many other things seen as closely connected to the hated socialist regime, Women's Day was jettisoned after the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Some women's rights campaigners feel this was a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water and are now seeking to reinstate the day, hoping it can shake off its socialist stigma and go back to its pre-Communist roots as a day for promoting equality and women's rights.
One of the groups planning to take to the streets on 8 March this year is the Czech Women’s Lobby. Its chairwoman Alexandra Jachanová Doležalová argues such activism is needed because, although anti-discrimination legislation is in place, in reality women still lose out in many areas. "There is huge discrimination in the labour market and women still don't have the same wages as men," she says, pointing out that women occupy just 4% of top managerial jobs in the country.
For more in our series on gender equality in Europe see:
Mr Midwife breaks down barrier
A matter of honour... tackling honour killings in Turkey
