International Women’s Day

Friday 8th March was International Women’s Day, a day to continue our promise to empower, support and uplift each other, and to remember that there is still inequality in the world. For that reason, I feel that it is sad we have to have an International Women’s Day. By now, in this 21st century equality should be a given.

The vote was not given to all women over 21 in the UK until 1928, thus finally giving them equal voting rights to men. However, it was not until 2010 that a law was passed regarding equal pay, although the gender pay gap still stood at 7.7% in April 2023, according to the ONS *. How can these inequalities still occur in a modern society is beyond me?

However, this day is one to applaud those who have risen above the chains of gender bias and excelled. Although there were and continue to be many, I would like to mention two.

Hedy Lamarr was born in Vienna in 1914, and married an ammunition manufacturer in.1933. She started her acting career in Czechoslovakia, but then left her husband and moved to London, where she met Louis B Mayer, of MGM, who offered her a contract. She was a glamorous Hollywood star, who married and divorced 6 times.

However there was another side to her, an avid interest in inventing and in engineering, completely self taught. Along with a composer George Anthiel, Lamarr  developed the concept of “frequency hopping” which enabled the allies in WWII to get around the problem of the Germans jamming torpedo signals. This frequency hopping is the forerunner to today’s WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS systems.

Ada Lovelace was born in London in 1815 and lived a short life, dying at the age of 36. This woman had a gift for mathematics and is credited with being the world’s first computer programmer for, although a machine was never built, she drew plans of a machine she called the Analytical Engine, which would perform computations. She also wrote a programme for it which, has since been proven that, if her the machine had been built, would have worked.

Two incredible women with super brains that made their inquisitiveness so strong that no gender bias would stand in their way. Although with each of them, acknowledgement of their prowess has taken years to be fully appreciated.

However, if we don’t have super brains does that make us less worthy? Of course not. I have only used their examples of what can be done if you try, if you don’t give up, and if you don’t give in to prejudice and bias.

So, fly high my lovely ladies, strive hard and push forward. Be the best you can be, knowing there is a sisterhood standing strong shoulder to shoulder with you, their arms gentle around you. You are not alone; you are one of us. Happy International Women’s Day... I long for the day when it is no longer needed! 

*The UK government Office for National Statistics