last year, on international women’s day, andy asked what happened to “international white guy day”. to which i pointed out *every day* was international white guy day.

this year, i was on my lunch hour walk with my friend bernie. and we went past the statue of emmeline pankhurst, in front of the houses of parliament. there were wreaths of flowers lain in front, and i asked bernie who she was (history was never my strong suit). turns out, she was the leader of the women’s suffrage movement in the u.k., the british equivalent of our susan b. anthony. she chained herself to the gates of parliament, bombed westminster abbey, went on hunger strikes, suffered imprisonment to achieve her goal. i found it touching that her statue was in such a prominent position, and that there were floral tributes in homage from all the major political parties.

flickr photo courtesy of tomroyal

the problem is that it remains tokenism. if you bother to check out the statistics, you soon find that women remain dramatically underrepresented in parliament. that the u.k., in fact, lags far behind not only many of the most progressive european countries (the scandanavian contingent are all in the top ten), but also more surprising countries such as rwanda, cuba, and mozambique.

With 19.5%, the UK is ranked 52nd out of 189 countries listed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in terms of the percentage of women holding office in the lower or single House of the national Parliamentary body.

for a westernised country that aspires to achieve real equality,that’s just not good enough. every day in modern history has been “international white guy” day. i’m lucky enough to live in one of the few countries in the world that has the opportunity to change that.

once a year flowers and a statue, not matter how well intentioned, are just not good enough.

ms. pankhurst would say the same.

song of the day: no doubt – just a girl

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emmeline pankhurst, women's suffrage, women's rights, international women's day