At Airbnb, we’ve made it easier than ever before for women to become Hosts…
— from a press release sent out on March 8, International Women’s Day… a global holiday celebrated annually as a focal point in the women’s rights movement.
I hope Daily Post readers enjoyed International Women’s Day yesterday.
If you missed it, don’t worry. It comes around every year on March 8.
As I recall, the first “Women’s Day” was organized by the Socialist Party of America in New York City 1909. The socialist celebration relocated to Germany in 1914, where red flags were popular, and the parades focused largely on “Frauenwahlrecht”. “Women’s right to vote”.
Barefoot German women had to wave big red flags for another four years before they finally won the right to vote.
On March 8, 1917, women textile workers in Russia began a demonstration that eventually engulfed the whole city of Petrograd, demanding “Bread and Peace”… an end to World War I, to food shortages, and to czarism… and we all know what happens when women get an idea in their heads. Pretty soon, Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik friends were running the show, World War I was over, women had the right to vote, and everyone had as much bread as they wanted.
Now that women have the right to vote — even over here in the U.S. — women have moved on to more important issues. Like, making money, and spending money. And in some cases, staying out of poverty.
To celebrate March 8, vacation rental platform Airbnb.com distributed some statistics showing how much money their ‘Women Hosts’ made in 2022. Here in Colorado, Women Airbnb Hosts brought in $275 million. Not quite up to the $1.3 billion earned by Women Hosts in California, but good enough to put Colorado in seventh place, among the 50 U.S. states.
Way to go, Colorado Women!
On Airbnb, women are a light that makes our Host community shine bright, and on International Women’s Day, we’ve released a new report looking at how they’ve continued to excel on our platform.
Earnings: Women Hosts in the U.S. made over $7 billion on the platform in 2022, with the typical female Host in the U.S. making over $14,500…
Hosts: Women make up 58 percent of the Airbnb Hosts in the U.S…
5-star ratings: Globally, Women Hosts received a higher share of 5-star reviews (91%) than their male counterparts (88%)…
We recognize that Airbnb is not exactly a socialist organization, nor is International Women’s Day a purely socialist holiday nowadays. In fact, International Women’s Day is a fine day for buying expensive clothing and accessories.
How about, for example, a $248 handbag made by women in Ethiopia? As advertised in Forbes Magazine, in celebration of International Women’s Day.
From the folks at Parker Clay:
Take note of this luxury leather brand because it gives back to women year-round. Specifically, it empowers Ethiopian women by offering fair and safe employment in an area where a quarter of women turn to prostitution to provide for themselves and their families. In addition to luxe leather goods… the site also carries home items like coffee, candles and blankets.
As we note in the German poster at the top of the page, women in 1914 did not even have shoes to wear, let alone luxe leather handbags from Ethiopia.
Presumably, they had spent what little money they had on big red flags.
Women in the U.S. who host Airbnb rentals apparently now make “over $14,500” a year, on average. This doesn’t strike me as an excessive income.
According to an online inflation calculator, $14,500 in 2022 was roughly equal to $495 on 1914. This really has no bearing at all on the discussion; I just enjoy using the inflation calculator.
In 2018, the federal government set the official “Poverty Line” at $13,064 for a single individual (younger than age 65) and $25,465 for a family of four with two adults and two children. That puts an income of “over $14,500” into some kind of perspective, I suppose.
Also in 2018, 13 percent of women lived in poverty compared with 11 percent of men. Nearly 10 million women lived in ‘deep poverty’, defined as falling below 50 percent of the federal poverty line. It appears that the typical Airbnb Women Hosts are not living in ‘deep poverty’.
Anyway, as I said, if you missed International Women’s Day, it’ll be around again next year.