The holiday celebrated on March 8 seems to be very romantic… There are thousands of flowers, presents and gentle words devoted to women. But what is the true meaning of it? In order to answer this question you will have to dive into the depths of history.

It all started back in 1857 with the ‘march of empty pots’ of New York textile workers, whose aim was to achieve equality between women and men and the improvement of working conditions.

One of the leaders of the international social democratic movement Clara Zetkin continued the tradition of the turbulent XIX century. Using the example of American workers, she suggested choosing a day that would be completely dedicated to the problems of women. The idea was officially implemented long after the death of the activist. In 1975, the United Nations Organization declared March 8 International Day for Women's Rights and International Peace.

So it’s time to celebrate this holiday in a proper way! It’s not only about feeling happy because of given flowers. It concerns our decision to make new steps toward a civilized society that can break stereotypes about the place of women in it!

That’s why on March 5 Sumy State University hosted an informational and educational event called ‘Sports Gender Orientation’ initiated by Gender Resource Center.

The idea of the event was to encourage the participants to rethink existing gender stereotypes from a critical point of view.

‘This year we have changed the traditional celebration of the holiday and drawn attention to the historical aspect of International Women's Day. We wanted to attract the attention of young people to the damage caused by certain stereotypes associated with personal qualities and the behavior, which is considered to be male or female exclusively,’ states Serhiy Korol', the leading event coach.

Law students and students from the faculty of Foreign Philology and Social Communications took part in Gender Orientation. 6 pairs of participants completed 7 stages of tasks. On every stage each of the teams had to perform a task, demonstrating the ability to maneuver between stereotypes. For example, they were to define personal qualities as male or female exclusively, to determine the sex of the person only by a hairstyle, to write a recipe for semolina or to dress up a doll in a jumpsuit etc. The participants of Gender Orientation had a chance to realize that stereotypes prevailing in society sometimes prevent us from seeing things objectively. After all, there are no male or female qualities, because qualities are something acquired regardless of gender; hairstyle (especially in our time) is no longer a sign of sex and semolina can be cooked not only by a skilled housewife, but also by a real man.

‘From childhood I have been taught that the household or caring for children is a work for a woman. But taking part in this event made me realize how wrong those ideas were. After all we are living in a civilized society, not in the Stone Age. Today it’s necessary for a man to know how to cook semolina or dress up a baby,’ says Artem Shtanko, the participant of the event, sophomore of Advertising and Public Relations specialty.

So the first step toward the breaking traditional stereotypes concerning International Women's Day has been taken. The organizing team hopes that next year the event gains momentum and the representatives from all SSU’s departments will take part in it.