This Sunday is International Women's Day and I'll be marking it by walking with Helen Pankhurst through London in support of 'Walk In Her Shoes' campaign
It's a day to remember all women across the world who currently face injustice and inequality. Twelve reasons why you should mark it:
- 1 billion women across the world will be beaten, raped, abused or mutilated in their lifetime
- In the UK, women make up 17% of board directors at FTSE 100 companies
- In Russia, women are forbidden from working in 400 types of work
- In the UK, 70% of people employed in national minimum wage jobs are women
- In Madagascar, women are not allowed to work at night
- Across the globe, 1 in 9 girls is forced into marriage before her 15th birthday
- In Saudi Arabia, women are forbidden from holding a driving licence
- Two thirds of women are illiterate world-wide
- Marital rape is legal in the Bahamas
- In Malta, it is legal for a man to abduct and rape a woman as long as he marries her afterwards
- 800 women die in childbirth
- In Syria, a husband can prevent his wife from leaving the country