If men really are from Mars, then Senator David Norris became an honorary Venusian yesterday as he added his support to International Women's Day.
"I am, today, an honorary woman," he told the group at the headquarters of the National Women's Council in Dublin, conceding that the visual aspect of this proposal may be slightly harder to accept.
Mr Norris last night introduced a motion in the Seanad calling for the implementation of a national paid holiday for women. He was preparing lots of "intellectual snowballs" to peg at the Government, he said, adding that he was confident the proposal would be accepted.
There was a sort of strike going on at the National Women's Council, but the atmosphere at the largely female gathering owed more to a genteel coffee morning than a militant picket line.
Women all around the Statewere urged to "down tools" for 10 minutes at 11 a.m. to highlight the council's campaign for a paid holiday.
Sipping free trade coffee and eating Danish pastries, the group was entertained by an earnest-looking folk singer strumming a guitar. The chairwoman of the council, Ms Grainne Healy, said the holiday, proposed for February 1st, St Brigid's Day, would be an "official recognition by Government of the value of women's paid and upaid work to Irish society". The insurance company Ark Life has valued women's unpaid work at £14 billion a year.
Also present were the former minister for education, Ms Gemma Hussey; journalist Ms Nell McCafferty; Ms Noreen Byrne, former chairwoman of the council; and Mr Niall Crowley, chief executive of the Equality Authority.
Commenting on a younger generation of females who viewed the feminist cause as passe, Ms Hussey, now director of the European Women's Foundation in Luxembourg, said there was still a long way to go.
"The big moment of truth will come when they have children," she said. Adapting the workplace for the next generation of women and their children was one of the biggest challenges, she added.
On Pearse Street, a short walk from the headquarters of the council, the female of the species remained blissfully unaware of the date. Asked what day it was, women of all ages answered Ash Wednesday, No Smoking Day or simply Wednesday.
Only one young woman out of 10 questioned knew the date before admitting to being a little confused about the celebrations. "What exactly happens on Women's Day?" she asked.