Philobiblon

… hats off to the Independent, which has done an obvious but very worthwhile list of how far women still labour under enormous disadvantages around the world. A sample:

* 1% of the titled land in the world is owned by women
* 70% of the 1.2 bn people living in poverty are women and children
* 85m girls worldwide are unable to attend school, compared with 45m boys. In Chad, just 4% of girls go to school.
* 67% of all illiterate adults are women
* 1,440 women die each day during childbirth (a rate of one death every minute)
* In the EU, women comprise 3% of chief execs of major companies
12 is the number of world leaders who are women (out of 191 members of the United Nations)
* Men directed 9 out of every 10 films made in 2004

If a criticism might be made, it is that there has been progress made, which the story fails to acknowledge – the number of women in those last three categories would, 30 years ago, have been very close to zero. And in the middle ranks there has been progress.

But the message that needs to be driven home again, and again and again, is that while progress has been made – and it has been demonstrated, for those for whom it needed to be demonstrated — that women are just as capable as men at any job on the face of the earth (and beyond) we still have a long, long way to go. (And even those gains achieved are under threat …)

I was going to write a lengthy original post, but time has got away from me, so please consider this my contribution to the Blog Against Sexism Day.