Cityvisitor blog

International Women’s Day

I don’t like International Women’s Day. There I said it.  Now before you jump down my throat brandishing a copy of The Guardian, it’s not what you think. I’m not yet another sweaty “men’s rights” activist crying “Feminazi” and “Misandry” whilst watching Loose Women in my underpants.

I’m all for women’s rights and believe that not enough is being done to address sexism even in the western world where women are supposed to have it best.

I don’t like International Women’s Day because I don’t think half the planet’s population should get just one day a year to promote their equality. Obviously events that feminist organisations put on during International Women’s Day are great and certainly important but many media organisations and companies see it as an opportunity to put on a plastic smile, pay a bit of lip service and then promptly forget about it for another year.

A lot of people say that sexism is dying out, the glass ceiling has been broken and the sky’s the limit. Hmmm. Take a guess at the percentage of land owned by women globally. 30%? 20%? 10% at least surely? Try 1%. There’s only three-and-a-half billion women on planet Earth and between them they only own a single percent of titled land, makes you think doesn’t it?

“Oh but that’s just because of places like Saudi Arabia and India stacking the deck” the men’s rights activists say, “It’s not like that here in the ‘civilised’ world.” Very well let’s take a look at good old Blighty. Here’s another stat for you: 17%. That’s the average difference in income you’ll get if you were born with the wrong set of genitals in the UK. In fact there’s only one industry where women earn more than men on average. Porn.

Clearly we’re not out of the sexist woods yet and it’s going to take more than just one day a year and a custom google doodle to fix it.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.