International Women's Day

For anyone thinking "Oh for goodness sake..." I am only writing this post because more than 3 people appeared in my feed today harping on about "When is International Men's Day?" "Oh for goodness sake don't women get enough these days?" and I thought, until these people are a bit better informed, it's probably not time for me to stop hammering away trying to get them to wise up a bit.

Here are some thoughts on why we need International Women's Day.

1. The only people I know who wear rape alarms are women, and they are women who live in a relatively safe country compared to others. So, until no one's wearing rape alarms let's keep IWD. I'm open to the suggestion we start calling it No Raping Day if men really want to get involved, but I suspect it won't be overly popular.

2. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA29/001/2013/en

3. This week I auditioned for a show where only 20% of the auditionees were women despite the part having absolutely no gender specificity.

4. A line up of all female comedians is so rare that it justifies being a "Special" night. A line up of all male comedians is just a comedy night.

5. Not even 25% of parliament is female. Only 1/5 of the House of Lords is a woman. Given that everyone reading this knows at least one woman who has a job, pays taxes and is a functioning member of society, it might be better if we had more of a proportional representation in Head Office.

6. "Analysis by the Guardian of 50 of the UK's most valuable companies shows that women account for only 14% of staff serving on executive committees – the management level just one rung below the boardroom and which are viewed as the pipeline of talent to fill future board vacancies.

The figures imply that women occupying jobs at executive committee level are even more scarce than on FTSE 100 boards, with the latest numbers from the Professional Boards Forum showing just 17.3% of blue chip directors are women."

7. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2276400/India-gang-rape-victim-blamed-horrific-attack-killed-her.html

8. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/06/sex-traffick-romania-britain

So. There are a few reasons.

My life is not hard - my life is charmed, happy and hard but satisfying much like a lot of other women I know in this country. It's not the same everywhere. There's also evidence to suggest that the remarkable women you know in your life in this country could be doing better, if we put them in places where there are currently unremarkable men. It wouldn't mean men getting nowhere and women having everything, it might mean a balance. It's not a day to tell men to be nicer, it's also a day to tell female editors to stop printing pictures of half dressed women with bright red circles around their natural body bits. Alright? Cool. Now, don't forget to buy a Mother's Day card guys and gals.