Today is not only Mardi Gras, it's also the one hundredth celebration of La Journée Internationale de la Femme.
It's a day to give a new take on the French expression, "Cherchez la femme." In the 19th century Alexandre Dumas coined the term in Les Mohicans de Paris, a novel in which the plot, just by coincidence, begins to unfold on Mardi Gras, 1827. The term is used to suggest that if a man gets into any kind of difficulty, there is undoubtedly a woman at the bottom of it. Well, ironically a good deal of the world's women are indeed at the bottom: Women accomplish 2/3 of the work done on this planet, produce 1/2 of all the food, but only earn 10% of the world's total revenue and own only 1% of the property. Ladies, we're in high demand, so why not osez le féminisme?
VocabularyLa Journée Internationale de la Femme: International Women's Day
Cherchez la femme: look for the woman
Osez le féminisme: Dare to be feminist; a French organization of women dedicated to the advancement of women's rights in the world.
Text & photo © 2011 P.B. Lecron
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