And happy womens day to you too!

Riding the train to work, I often read the free newspapers they pass out, usually just to pass the time before getting to work, and mostly cuz my Italian is not good enough for the "real newspaper". It was hard not to notice it was International Women's Day this week. Even before arriving in the station, it was apparent as the "national flower" for women's day is the mimosa. A puffy yellow flower similar to dandeloins. Street vendors were very busy selling them on every corner of the street.

In the newspaper (I actually grab 2, one significantly better and less sensationalist than the other) articles were written about the progress of women in Italy. this was your typical "we must write an article on women today" kind of articles. How many more business women, how many women in political office compared to 10/15/20 years ago. etc. etc. followed by the mandatory, we have acheived a lot but a lot remains to be done, yada yada yada. I feel worldwide as if these articles are copy/paste jobs with just an update on numbers. I just feel it is so divorced from the realities of every day life. If you ask me, these are the changes I will need to see to count as advance:

1. Women are not paraded as sex token on TV (quite tiring, and much more obvious in Italy than I have seen anywhere else). Case in point: On women's day on TV here in Italy, there was your typical show with a barely dressed woman bound in chains with a huge lock between her breasts, and the contestant had a bowl of keys he had to find the right key to the lock. Every "attempt" had the man's hands fondling her breasts.

2. Women who have kids have real mechanisms to allow them to work. Case in point: Children are not allowed to be in a day care for more than 8 hours, yet the normal working day is 8 hours, how is this feasible? Unless women have a star trek ability to zap themselves from work to home, this is not possible.

3. Women are not wholly responsible in the household for cleaning/cooking/washing in addition to the job they have outside the home if they have one. Case in point: Recent study shows that when living with a male partner, women's housework doubles, and no its not because they become twice as messy.

4. Women never have to fear walking alone on a street after dark. 'nuff said.

Whereas I KNOW there are much "more important" indicators out there, and on Womens Day they always refer to them, and I agree with every one (yes to women's education, no to violence against women, yes to women's legal rights); I feel like the above is not just a matter of changing policies, but of changing the things the world has taken for granted.

And to the world out there, thank you for the mimosas, but I need more from you.