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What do men have to say for Women's Day?

每年的国际三八妇女节我们都能听到各界女同胞们庆贺的声音，为什么不听听来自另一半世界的声音呢？本期双语周刊找到了一些中外男士，我们来听一听他们对于三八节的说法吧。

Prof. Wang
(Chinese, a retired professor from Xiamen University)
I think it’s a good idea to have a Women’s Day. On this day, society should take the occasion to think about women’s situation and hear what women have to say in order to find out what can be done to better their situation. As currently women’s situation in this country as well as worldwide is not satisfactory and it still has a long way to go to reach equality between men and women. As for myself, usually I would love to come up with some ideas for women around me such as my wife, my daughter and others, and these ideas are about how they can enjoy themselves and relax on such a special and meaningful day.

Tony Wu
(Chinese, Sales Manager at Southbay)
To start with, if men and women were absolutely equal, then men’s lives would become much easier. This is especially so in urban life where men should start thinking about taking responsibility for their future families at a much younger age than women. Even after a family is formed, men’s pressure of maintaining this family is greater than women’s partly because of the inequality between men and women. However, this is just the way it is. It would be really unrealistic to reach idealistic equality in any form of society, as people are born differently in the first place. Seeking absolute equality wouldn’t be wise, instead we should look at details of what women have and what’s needed to be improved, like the situation in some parts of the Chinese countryside where women are still being greatly discriminated against.

Bradley
(American, studying in Beijing and visiting Xiamen）
I think having an International Women’s Day is fine as long as we are careful about the way we celebrate it. I mean, we should use the day to highlight the similarities between men and women and the good work that is done by women. Several of my female friends in China don’t really celebrate this day. They take it gratefully as a day off work. I think the status of women is changing in China. To begin with there are many more women now in China than there were in the past. I heard that China is now 52% women. I think that while China continues developing, this group is going to become more and more influential and powerful. On a work basis, I think the situation is fairly comparable to America. But on a social level I think that in China the women are still considered the home-keepers and the men the bread-makers. It’s a difficult problem and one that is worldwide.

Neil Cao
(Chinese, a Senior Software Engineer at eHeathChina)
I believe it is absolutely necessary to have a day like this for women. Being a relatively weak group, women are still being discriminated in many areas and situation should be greatly improved, though a Women’s Day is far from enough. The government as well as the entire society should take women’s rights more seriously and come up with some solutions to improve women's situation on a daily basis. Although there is still a long way to go before the situation of women is satisfactory, I think the Chinese government has done a great job so far. For instance, maternity leave in China is usually half a year. Compared with only two weeks in western countries, it definitely shows more consideration for women, and should be accoladed.

Brian Fredell
(American, a freelance writer）
Well, before this year I had only heard of International Women’s Day. I assumed it was something like secretaries' day or something of similar magnitude. After doing a little web surfing on the subject, I have realized that I was dead wrong and that Women’s Day is one of a group of extremely important liberation movements. I now think that it is potentially one of the most, if not the most important of the international holidays. Comparing women’s situation in China with that in America, as far as I know, American women are most concerned over reproductive rights, fairness in educational and workplace opportunities. In China it’s hard for me to know what the most pressing issues are as my Chinese is not all that good yet. I have heard recently on CCTV though that many female S.E. Asian infants are put up for adoption — although that may not necessarily be a bad thing if the family is too poor or otherwise well equipped to raise a healthy, happy child.

Pierre
(French, Marketing Manager of outdoor goods company)
In a modern society I don't think it is necessary to have a Women's Day. We already have some special days like AIDS Day, Cancer Day so Women's Day means there is still something wrong with the integration of women into the society. But it is useful to celebrate this day nowadays and show that the degree of the evolution of a society depends on the integration of women into it. In France we have this event as well. But I don't see it as a special day, it’s just a way to analyze the current situation of women in France and the rest of the world. In France (and most developed countries) there are still a lot of inequalities between men and women such as salaries, integration, and a low number of women involved in government. It will take time, but it has already improved a lot.