Mark your calendars for March 8, International Women’s Day! This site is laden with information about how IWD is celebrated around the world. A national holiday in countries such as China, Bulgaria, and Vietnam, this is historical day to celebrate the contributions and achievements of women across the ages. If you’ve ever wondered about the history of International Women’s Day, this site provides a chronology tracing the celebration back to its start in 1911. While the goal is for every day of the year to include recognition for the accomplishments of women, International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to feel connected to the daughters, sisters, mothers, and grandmothers throughout our global community.
How will you celebrate your life as a woman? The lives of women you are close with? What do you cherish about being female?
I recently visited my father’s youngest sister, who is now in her early 70s. Despite societal expectations and barriers of gender and class, she has created an independent life for herself that continues to inspire me. She lives in her own cement house, built on the same site in Aguada, Puerto Rico that my Mama Minga had her wooden home (before Hurricane George had its way with it).
My grandmother, Mama Minga, had the foresight to purchase a plot of land with the settlement from her husband’s accidental death in 1936. She left that land to her five youngest children–my aunt being the only girl in that bunch. To make ends meet after her husband died, Mama Minga would bring in piece work (small articles to be sewn by hand for the US garment industry that paid pennies per piece of work) for her and the youngest to sew.
My aunt further developed her skills as a seamstress. Eventually she got a job at a JCPenny’s clothing factory, which supported herself and her son. Her eyes still sparkle with pride when she talks about the lingerie she made day after day. The factory moved overseas 13 years ago (for a cheaper labor pool) and she’s lives off her monthly social security check. You can tell she’s glad to not work in the factory anymore (“I haven’t been sick a day since I stopped working there,” she tells me. “Too much stress.”). Now her days are her own and she sews for pleasure.
Although she sews most everything–clothing, curtains, etc.–she has a special place in her heart for making dolls. Treasured patterns of small girls, precisely cut, and lovingly wrapped in paper and plastic and stored in boxes are carefully removed for me to see. Each pattern has a story. “I made this one for my granddaughter, Nicole, when she was little.” “When I was six, my mother made me a Victorian doll just like this one.” “I sold this one for $20.”
Each doll connects her to other girls and women in her life.
She’s now making one for me.
