I love trivia and learning new things, so I tend to read far and wide. The following is a list of 25 Fast Facts About Women Around the World. Some are quirky, some serious, and others are just downright depressing. I tried to offer a balance of each, and hope that there’s something to make you smile, as well as something to make you think.

Here’s the 25 that got my attention and made the list.

1. 80% of the 50 million people around the world who are affected by violent conflicts, civil wars, disasters, and displacement are women and children

2. In 2004, 48.8% of the seats held in parliament in Rwanda were held by women. Contrast that to Cuba where 36% of the seats were held by women, and the USA, where 14.3 % of the seats were held by women. Saudi Arabia and the Solomon Islands are just two countries where there are no women in parliament (UNDP, Human Development Report 2004)

3. In 76 countries, less than half the eligible girls are enrolled in secondary school

4. Women own only 1% of the world’s land

5. Approximately three million women in the USA sport tattoos

6. A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn’t give her coffee

7. 43% of Australian marriages end in divorce. of those who remarry, 65% of them will divorce again. By the time you try for marriage number 3, your chance of getting divorced is about 75%

8. The women of the Tiwi tribe in the South Pacific are married at birth

9. It is illegal to be a prostitute in Siena, Italy, if your name is Mary

10. In parts of Malaya, the women keep harems of men

11. The two highest IQ’s ever recorded (on a standard test) both belong to women

12. In Kenya where 38% of the farms are run by women, those women manage to harvest the same amount per hectare (2.47 acres) as men, despite men having greater access to loans, advice, fertilizers, hybrid seeds, insecticides. And when women were given the same level of help, they were found to be more efficient than men, and produced bigger harvests

13. Over half a million women die in childbirth every year in Africa and Asia

14. Nearly 1/2 of all Indonesian women have had their first child by the time they are 17

15. In the USA, unintended pregnancies account for almost half of all pregnancies

16. According to The World Health Org., 40 per cent of girls aged 17 or under in South Africa are reported to have been the victim of rape or attempted rape

17. In Sweden, 76% of mothers work, the highest percentage in the developed world

18. Australia, New Zealand and the US are among a handful of governments that do not require women to be paid some form of maternity leave. In countries as diverse as Russia, Colombia, Laos and Morocco, the government foots the entire bill for three to six months of maternity leave

19. By age 55, 95% of all U.S. women have married

20. In 2007 the world’s richest self-made woman was Ms Zhang Yin, a Chinese paper recycling entrepreneur

21. Only 5% of Hollywood feature films are directed by women

22. Today, Japan leads the world in condom use. Like cosmetics, they’re sold door to door, by women

23. Seventy percent of women would rather have chocolate than sex (Poll taken in a 1995 women’s magazine)

24. Australian women have sex on the first date more than women the same age in the USA and Canada

25. China is considered the next big marketing opportunity for the tobacco industry because only 3.8% of Chinese women smoke, compared with 63 % of adult males

When you research the state of women around the world, I am sad to say that finding inspiring facts and figures is difficult. There is much that I left off this list, simply because I didn’t want to send everyone into a black mood for the day!

We may look around at progress in developed countries and feel women are better off than they’ve ever been, but we are such a minority. The story is completely different for much of the world’s women, who are suffering from the same persecution, and deplorable health and living conditions that they’ve endured for centuries. I’ll try to remember that the next time I’m complaining about my life.

If you have access to a computer, shelter, breakfast in your tummy and are able to read this, then you already have so much to be grateful for.

Have a great day.

Kelly


Photo by elchapincito.

I was reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to my son tonight, and as the rhyming text rolled off my tongue in sing-song waves I couldn’t help but marvel at the literary brilliance that was Theodor Seuss Geisel.

The Lorax is not one of his better known books, but it has always been my favorite. It’s very much an ode to the dangers of greed and unfettered progress, and as a kid I always loved books and songs with a moral message. I was an anti-capitalist, environmentalist Liberal long before I knew what one was. My dad used to play his guitar to my brother and I every night before bed and one of our favorite songs was an old folk tune called “Throw out your TV”, which tells you a lot about my alternative childhood.

But back to Dr. Seuss. If you have children and you are not reading them Dr. Seuss, then get thee to a book store!

Never has there been a children’s writer who could tell such imaginative stories, draw amazing technicolor graphics that make the characters come alive on the page, whilst also delivering a positive moral message that is too clever and crazy to be preachy.

However, your reading style and rhythm is crucial when introducing your children to Dr. Seuss. If you don’t put expression into the words it just won’t be the same, so relax, maybe have a gargle, do some vocal exercises, throw yourself into character and embrace this roller coaster reading task. Your children will love it, you can immerse yourself in the magic of childhood once more, and best of all, you’ll be instilling a love of words and books. A love that will feed the mind, nurture the soul and keep your children company through the long years ahead.

Some of my best friends have been characters in books, and today I’d like you to meet one. His name is The Lorax.

“The instant I’d finished, I heard a ga-Zump!

I looked.

I saw something pop out of the stump

of the tree I’d chopped down. It was sort of a man.

Describe him? …..That’s hard. I don’t know if I can.

He was shortish. And oldish.

And brownish. And mossy.

And he spoke with a voice

that was sharpish and bossy.”

And just to show you why I love The Lorax so much, I’ll leave you with a few of his inspirational words.

“UNLESS someone like you

cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better.

It’s not.”

And THAT is why I worship at the altar of Dr. Seuss.

Excerpts from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

I found this video on YOUTUBE, where a young guy named Will Albino walks through the Padua Academy in the USA asking the female students there to sign a petition to end women’s suffrage. As you might guess from the title of my post, scores of young women not only sign the petition, but show they have absolutely no idea what it is, with one student saying “women’s suffrage is really bad”.Now, we must allow for selective editing here. Maybe just as many women didn’t sign, but were not included because let’s face it, a 50/50 split wouldn’t make a point would it? However, it does make me question what basics our kids are not taught in school today. Have English and History gone out of fashion? And in a country like the USA, where voting is voluntary and only 54% of eligible voters cast their ballots in any particular election, I have to wonder if these women would still sign the petition even knowing what it was. Maybe Paris Hilton should do an advertisement encouraging people to vote, then young women might actually know what suffrage is. In Australia, I can’t say the situation is much better. While we have compulsory voting for all eligible citizens, nothing can make apathetic people (anyone under 30?) care enough to give their vote the consideration and thought it deserves. As for our education system, again I would say our young people are faring badly. If any of the Big Brother contestants this year are representative of their Generation Y peers, teenagers can’t spell and reading went out of fashion with the yo-yo. Then again, when you’re 18 years old and wear t-shirts with Porn Star emblazoned across your tits, while singing “Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me”, maybe you never see a reason why you would need an education, or even that pesky right to vote.

Have you ever regretted not finishing school or wished you had your dream career? Or maybe those fantasies of traveling the world seem so distant now you have a family. But it’s too late now, right? You’re no kid - you might even have kids - you’re too old to go back and start again now.

Well, a 94 year old Australian woman has just proved you are never too old, and it is never too late. Great great grandmother, Phyllis Turner, received her Masters in Medical Science from Adelaide University this week, possibly making her the oldest woman in the world to receive a Masters degree.

Ms Turner, who left school at age 12, has even been urged to continue her studies and complete a doctorate. While not ruling this out, she has admitted her family would like her to take things a bit easier. If only we all had that kind of energy!

So, next time you catch yourself thinking “what if” and reminiscing over old regrets, grab yourself by the collar and remind yourself of Phyllis. If she can study medicine and she’s in her nineties, then you can do pretty much ANYTHING. Education is the one of the most empowering gifts a woman can give herself. Whether it is for career purposes or to stretch the mind and invigorate the soul, education truly sets you free. It gives you options and shows you a limitless world, and when you are old and less able, you will have the serenity of knowing you fulfilled your potential and gave life your best.

So take a deep breath today and ask yourself - “what have I been telling myself is impossible”? If you knew you could not fail, what would you do with your life? If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do? If this all sounds ridiculous, then start small. Maybe you’ve always envied women who were comfortable shaking their thang on the dance floor - so join a dance class. Once you stretch yourself and your perception of what you can achieve, you will find even more ambitions open up to you. Who knows where your life could go.

Now, isn’t that an exciting thought?