International Women's Day

Today my blip is green and purple, a tribute to the Suffragettes who did so much to fight for equality for women in this country.  It was not until the Equal Franchise Act in 1928 that women over 21 finally achieved the same voting rights as men.  Yet 18 general elections later, in 2010, over 9 million women did not vote.  I used to tease my parents who went off to the polling booth together, where their votes cancelled each other out.  They explained why, no matter what, I must always use my right to vote.  The last time No 1 daughter voted she put in a complaint that there was nowhere for a wheelchair user to vote in private - the booths were too small and the ledge to write on too high.  No equality there either.

There are far more men called John leading the UK's top 100 companies than all the women put together.   Maybe we have more important priorities in our jobs than generating squillions for shareholders'  profit. 

And it's not just in far-flung developing countries that women undergo genital mutilation, rape, and torture.  It happens here too.