International Women's Day and EQUALS?

Today is International Women's Day. You may ask.. and? How does that affect me?

I come from a long line of incredibly strong, feisty women. I know I'm lucky. Really lucky.

My great-grandmother was a suffragette. Took no crap from anyone.

My glorious grandmother (on the banner at the top of this site) married a G.I. during the Second World War and moved to Mississippi with him where she had my Mother. When she found out he had cheated on her she picked up my Mother and got on the first boat back to England. On her own. And divorced him. As a Roman Catholic. In the early 1950's. And then worked her arse off every single day to support her daughter.

My own Mother worked from the age of 15 to put herself through college (no child support in the 60's!). She is a cancer survivor and now battles with the bastard that is Lupus. Every single day. Every single day she gets up, works through the pain and is there for all of us. Every Single Day.

These women gave me my wings. There is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful for their sacrifice, hard graft and support.

Because of them, I have always had confidence to follow my own path. I have a great family, I am free to come and go as I please. I don't answer to anyone.

So when I received these facts this week, they literally stopped me in my tracks. And then I got mightily pissed off. I started Give and Makeup because I was pissed off. Pissed off that women had to flee their homes because men - men that supposedly loved them - were literally threatening their lives and the lives of their children and forcing them to leave behind all of their belongings, family pets, their homes. How DARE they?

So on International Women's Day, before you get up, shower, drive yourself to work, take your children to school, run your errands - whatever the day has in store for you, please read a few of the facts that hit home with me personally below, take a minute to digest them, and then if you're left feeling the way I was, take a look at the links below and read about ways you can support your fellow woman.

• Women own 1% of the world's property. ONE PER CENT.
• Only 19% of the world's parliamentary seats are held by women.
• 1 in 4 women are the victims of domestic violence. ONE IN FOUR.
• Women do 66% of the world's work, yet only earn 10% of the world's income. (??!!??!!)

And one particularly close to my heart: Every year in the UK alone 30,000 women lose their jobs because they are pregnant.

THIRTY THOUSAND WOMEN LOSE THEIR JOBS BECAUSE THEY ARE PREGNANT.

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

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