>>Though, in most of the east-European countries there's the International Women's Day (March 8th) which is the day all the florists are living for. I do think this is more fair than having a Mother's day, because it doesn't reduce the better half of the humankind to only one role, but rather serves as a praise to their struggle for equality. One of the things from communist times that nobody even thinks to remove.
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>Nice spin. Try this one.
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>It's a way of recognizing women for a role ONLY they can fill. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for equal political and social rights (and pardon me if I don't think one needs communist proclivities to believe in such things) -- the simple biological fact is that men and women are different and Mother's Day is a way to recognize the wonderfullness of that difference and the power that goes with that role --- vive la differance!

Oui, oui, but that speech was one of the main issues in the campaign against those rights, and it reemerges every now and then; the point being the women are primarily mothers, and all the rest is secondary. The implied message was "sit at home and have kids, stay away from politics, engineering etc". Second implied message was that males, being unable to give birth, must resort to second prizes, like having the power, money, education and other replacements for the right thing.

I'm not saying things are not better now; I'm also not saying they're good enough. I'm also not saying that things were in fact better in communist countries. You could see many women doing jobs you wouldn't expect, but you'd also have to wait for the second generation of drivers to actually see a significant number of women driving cars. In most families, with one car, guess who was driving.

And the celebration of 8th of March was turned into its opposite: at the majority of the workplaces, the ladies would receive flowers from their colleagues, maybe get a little free trip organized if the company was rich enough, and would be allowed to leave work several hours before regular time. They used this time to do some shopping and to hurry home to cook some holliday dinner; the males remained at the work and took the opportunity, being alone now, to get drunk. Then they'd go home in such a state, and congratulate their wives with their day... didn't happen as a general rule, but was fairly common.