International Women's Day - 100 Year anniversary

Here are some salutary facts, thanks to google and Women on the Bridge campaign:

75% of all women cannot get bank loans because they have unpaid or insecure jobs and lack property ownership rights. Women are also 21% less likely than men even to own a mobile phone and therefore to have similar communication possibilities.     

Women constitute two-thirds of the world's ~800 million illiterate adults (aged 15 and over). Educating a girl in Africa means she could earn 25% more income, be 3 times less likely to contract HIV/AIDS and have a smaller, healthier family.

 Only 28 countries have achieved the 30% target set in the early 1990s for women in decision-making positions. Worldwide, women are paid 17% less, and have less employment security than men.

99% of maternal deaths are preventable, but every minute a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes. Worldwide, young women (15 - 24) are 1.6 times as likely as young men to be HIV positive. Every 14 seconds, another child becomes an orphan due to AIDS-related deaths.

The abuse of women and girls is endemic around the world. One in three women will be raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise violated in her lifetime.

Biding Time is a story about a group of young people, concentrating on a young woman called Thyme. She could be from anywhere in the world. When imaging where she could come from it is very important to consider how different conditions are for people in different parts of the world. Thyme's emotional journey is connected to the natural environment. Her internal 'weather' is influenced by external forces. This story is unremarkable and also extraordinary. In addressing equailty we need to explore new roles for women - in life and in the arts, in fact and in fiction.

Happy International Women's Day.