Tory Parliamentary Candidate Mary Macleod Celebrates International Women’s Day

With report that outlines opportunities and challenges faced by the modern woman

Local Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Mary Macleod is celebrating International Women’s Day on 8th March with a new Conservative Party report, called ‘Women in the World Today’ which outlines the opportunities and challenges which women in society face today.

Over the decades, there has been a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation.

There are now more women in the boardroom, there is greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women's visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life.

The unfortunate fact though, is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.

The report highlights some of these issues:
a) Women in the workplace - there is still a gender pay gap of 17%, flexible working is still not readily available and women typically have smaller pensions.
b) Women in their communities - there is a lack of choice for childcare and female carers suffer from a lack of support and a loss of earnings.
c) Vulmerable women - homeless women have issues in being housed, female prisoners suffer isolation and self-harm, 1 in 4 women still suffer domestic violence in their lifetime, victims of stalking are not properly supported and women are victims of human trafficking.
d) Women and ethnicity - women in Britain are being forced into marriage, polygamy exists in some communities, women in some communities experience enforced segregation, female genital mutilation is widespread in the UK and British women suffer 'honour' violence and killings.
e) The role of women in international development - women overwhelmingly bear the burden of extreme poverty and deprivation but can be used effectively as recipients of aid and can improve development.

Mary commented, “I believe that these are incredibly important concerns within British society today and it is difficult to believe that some of these issues still exist in today's world. We need to be able to give women real choice over their own lives - a choice that remains elusive for too many women in 21st century Britain. International Women’s Day though is an opportunity for us to celebrate the role of women around the world, what they have achieved to date and inspire the next generation to achieve their full potential. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers, school girls are welcomed into university, women can work and have a family, women have real choices.”

March 7, 2008