IWD has arrived. No. I do not mean WMD (hurrah). I mean IWD -- International Women's Day. Turns out we most definitely still need it. Yes, Harvard has a new president, Drew Gilpin Faust, Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, named on February 11. (For information click here or here.) Guess what? She's a woman. And all over the US (and one hopes internationally) women are celebrating. (Though at least one article mourns the "feminist takeover.")
Yes, Michelin Guide has given 3 stars (its highest rating) to its THIRD woman, Anne-Sophie Pic, since the advent of their rating system in the 1930s. She's the first in 50 years to receive it. And many of the articles begin with an emphasis on the "macho" world of cuisine. (I first saw the announcement in the Globe and Mail but here are a few other articles: here and here and here.)
We all know women chefs we love. Alice Waters. Judy Rodgers. Mollie Katzen. Julia Child. Marcella Hazan. Madhur Jaffrey. Deborah Madison. Name your favorite. Yet, even in 2007, chefdom seems a male world (though cooking is a woman's). To say we celebrate because Harvard finally names a woman president (or that Hilary is running for a different first) may signify how far we've come but it also signifies how little we have moved.
So, for International Women's Day, track down your favorite woman chef or woman president of Harvard. (You'll notice I did not put links here -- feminist vistory is worth a little work, right?) Once you find them, then what? Say thanks and work for a time when the adjective is less necessary and/or less noticeable. Work for change. Work for a feminist takeover. Make the ironic title of this little piece real.
