Guardian Letters on International Women’s Day: Progress in History
As a socialist and trade unionist I know that fine words and good policies, welcome though they are, often don’t amount to much in practice.
International Women’s Day is a reminder of that. All the sentiments and publicity don’t alter the reality that the gender pay gap is still too large- and pay is far from equal in many areas in reality. Work has hardly started on sorting out the even larger gender pensions pay gap.
The practical details and evidence of progress is important. Its also important that what progress is made is maintained and built on each generation. Often it isn’t.
In that context the fact that every letter in today’s Guardian was from a woman is positive. Letter writing remains more of a male preoccupation than a female one. In 2017 the then letters editor Nigel Willmott estimated that around 20% of letters received at the paper were from women.
Guardian Letters 8th March 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/07/womens-history-through-the-generations-of-my-family
There is scope for much more progress in history.
And yes I still write regularly. Its not about men writing less. Its about women writing more. Often the views and perspectives will be similar, but not always. The more variety and diversity the better. It underwrites democratic debate.
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