Happy International Women’s Day (Thanks, Kathryn Bigelow!)

By Sherrie Gulmahamad on March 8th, 2010

What an excellent accomplishment to begin our celebration of International Women’s Day -  Kathryn Bigelow, first female winner of the Best Director Academy Award!  Before anyone derides this win as gender politics, we remind you of Bigelow’s stellar filmography: Near Dark, Point Break, Strange Days, and now the decorated Hurt Locker. We celebrate your Oscar win as a definitive smash through Hollywood’s rather low glass ceiling.

Bigelow’s win comes just in time for March 8th’s celebration of International Women’s Day.  IWD started out as a socialist cause in the first decade of the 20th century and has since become a day to commemorate the “economic, political and social achievements” of womanhood. The U.N. has set this year’s theme as “Equal rights, Equal opportunities: Progress for all.”

For this year’s IWD, the International Committee of the Red Cross also asks the world to remember the struggles of women displaced by war and violent conflict. Nadine Puechguirbal, the ICRC adviser on women and war explains:

Women are not totally helpless. Our idea is to move away from assumptions and stereotypes and instead call attention to women’s specific needs, vulnerabilities in wartime, and indeed the remarkable strength they show in protecting and supporting their families and finding ingenuous ways of coping with their ordeal.

Today, consider making a donation to the ICRC to help women displaced by war, or by supporting any number of charitable events and causes around the world.

And now, we can close out with these soon to be immortal words: TEAM BIGELOW.

Sound off in the comments: how will you commemorate International’s Women’s Day today?

Photo via Source