International Women's Day at Boalt

Boalt Hall was awash with marquee events today in honor of International Women's Day, which made me chuckle a bit since celebrating March 8 is very much in keeping with Berkeley's leftist reputation. International Women's Day arose out of the socialist movement in the United States, but the holiday really took off among the socialist parties in Europe, especially Eastern Europe, in the 1910-20 period.

During the cold war, the West all but abandoned International Women's Day to the Soviet bloc, which treated the day as one of the major holidays of the Communist calendar. For the godless Commies, however, International Women's Day became the socialist equivalent of St. Valentine's day (no saint's days, when you're godless, see): a little heavy on platitudes about the tremendous contributions of women to the Communist cause, but really a rare occasion to buy your wife/girlfriend/mother/co-worker a bouquet and ply her with some Sovietskoye Champagnskoye. In the egalitarian spirit of the Soviet age, Women's Day fell just a few weeks after Red Army Day (February 23), which was the occasion to flatter the men with platitudes about their contributions to the Soviet cause and ply them with vodka.

In the post-Soviet period, the former Communist bloc continues to celebrate International Women's Day in the Valentine's day fashion, while I note at Berkeley the day had a decidedly more political character.