Ticking the Box

It was the Edinburgh march this afternoon to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote. That’s hardly any time at all and in my lifetime women are now able to get a mortgage for themselves , and continue in various jobs without having to resign on marriage. Life is on a much more equal footing with men despite there still being a disparity in salaries.

It’s no time at all since I failed to secure an interview with ICI on graduation because ‘ there were no changing rooms for women’ or being asked at another company interview if I ‘was walking out with anyone’, and having to lie while my engagement ring rested safely in my pocket, knowing full well the consequences of saying yes.

I should have been walking with the thousands of women on their way from The Meadows through the centre of Edinburgh to Holyrood Park. I ask myself why not and have no answer and no excuse. It may be because I’m not a fan of big marches or maybe nobody I knew was to my knowledge involved, but I could have walked with daughter#2 who is Edinburgh this weekend had I asked her.
However I didn’t and I feel rather guilty that I let down my fellow celebrants by just being a bystander watching the waves of purple, white and green bedecked ladies carrying banners, with some even wearing period dress, pass by in numbers I have never seen before on any march.