International Women's Day 2006

A greeting on the eighth of March.

In Kyiv this day is visible from a distance. Flower sellers appear on every corner from the sixth, men carry bouquets on the metro looking slightly self-conscious, and by evening every second person on the street is holding tulips.

Beyond the flowers, the thing I would note from a technical faculty: a considerably higher proportion of women studied engineering here than in the universities I knew. In my lecture halls that was normal and unremarked. It took me some time to realise it was not normal everywhere.

To the women I studied with, worked with, negotiated against and learned from over the years here — engineers, accountants, customs specialists, lawyers, teachers: a good day to you, and thank you.