International Women's Day

Its that time of the year again when we acknowledge that women should be treated equally to men. The rest of the year is what exactly? All Mens' Days.

The Suffragettes fought for what they believed in and got their voices heard in however way they could. They won the women's right to vote in 1928 and the gap between men's and women's salaries is still slowly shrinking. Although this is true, there are still many issues in existance that do not support the theory that women are now man's equal.

There are women all over the world who are subject to poverty. In many poorer countries young girls do not receive the privilage of education and many more women are illiterate than men, in fact around 66 per cent of the illiterate population are women. There are very few women in parliaments around the world and even at the home women still generally carry out the domestic tasks (not all homes of course).

It is not only freedom or power or money which will prove equality, but many women still experience sexism at work. Sexist remarks such as those made recently by commentators Andy Gray and Richard Keys are where society also fails to acknoewledge that men and women should be treated equally. In 2011 Women should not be downgraded.

Some will argue this is from a feminists perspective and that as a feminist I believe that women should be better than men, and have more power than men etc, etc, etc. This is not what it mean to be feminist. It is merely the belief that both socially, politically and economically women and men should be equal.

And to open up another can of worms altogether, in the media, when women do get air time, they are generally younger women, those who are supposedly more pleasing to watch. You rarely see older women hosting television programmes, unless its the middle of the day and your watching Loose Women. And why is Loose Women on in the middle of the day? Because it is a show aimed at women, and persumably due to the equality that doesn't exist women are more likely to be at home during this time of the day to watch women's TV.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled we can vote and can make nearly as much money as men, but there are still plenty of changes which can be made. It may be the 100th celebration of International Women's Day, but heres hoping that in the future we will have more to celebrate like education rights around the world and more female MPs, or in an ideal world maybe even be able to celebrate this equality all year round.