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Her daughter also won a Nobel Prize

nicko wrote:Thatcher got a few things wrong, but the best thing she did was to tame the unions who were getting too big for their boots!  They are getting that way again.

Indeed Nicko, they were basically like the Mafia.
She kicked them into touch.

Ah bless Nicko, fancy the working man standing up for himself, that's just not on is it, shey should be on their knees licking the boots of their betters. Like Hell!!!!! So when you were working, you were obviously thankful for every crumb that dropped from the rich man's table, and wringing your hands would say 'thank you sir, I'll survive on that sir, I don't need nothing sir, a crumb is far to much sir" Puke!

So Sassy aproves of how the Unions held the country to randsom in the 1970's and brought the countryt to its knee's with the winter of discontent.
Thank goodness Maggie kicked their arses as we have seen no repeat of such madness.

Sassy, I spent a lot of time in the Army, once when being shot at by some ira scum a mate next to me said "fuck this i'l complain to my union" 2 mins later he took a shot to the head that left some of his brains on my shoulder.`Some time later I read that workers in British Leyland had gone on strike because there were no Bacon Sandwiches in the canteen. Should have been with me,that would have given them something to strike about!

Nicko, I have no wish to put down what happened to you, but no one has ever gone one strike over a bacon sandwich, just because something is protrayed one way in the press doesn't make it true.  Workers need unions, without them they have no voice, no recompense, no way to get justice and can be walked all over on the whim of a bad employer.

Give you a for instance.  I was a Finance Manager of a smallish casting company that made belt buckles, enamelled cuff links etc, had a turnover of about £1million a year.

Because I was the Finance Manager and had a link to the bank, I could tell them at any time how much money they had, how much was due to come in, how much was due to go out and how much profit we had.

I found a report that the casting shop air was full of heavy metals and investigated.  The pollution in the air could cause people to become infertile.  Most of the people who worked there were under the age of 25.  When we had the next executive meeting a couple of days later, I brought it up and said we had plenty of money in hand to put in a proper filtration system.  It was rejected out of hand.  I resigned on the spot and contacted Health and Safety, and they had to put in the filtration system.

Those kids had no union.  They could have complained until they were blue in the face, they would have been sacked, and jobs were hard to come by.

If those kids had been in a Union, the Union would have backed their case, because I could have been the type of person who hung on to my job and said to hell with them.

That's why I became a union official in my next job, as was the Managing Director who was a friend, and that's why I advise everyone to belong to a union, you never know when you are going to need it.

So Stassi still excusing the Communist Unions that tried to hold the country to ransom.
Nobody is saying peoploe should not have representatives and that they should be there for the right reason of workers, but they are are not there to be in control of Governemnts, of which they certainly were doing in the 1970's.
The fact you yet again ignore all this and that Maggie rightly stopped the Unions having control over Governments.

Brasidas wrote:So Sassy aproves of how the Unions held the country to randsom in the 1970's and brought the countryt to its knee's with the winter of discontent.
Thank goodness Maggie kicked their arses as we have seen no repeat of such madness.

Maggie stopped the firebrand shop stewards who shouted 'everybody out' at the drop of a hat and most people didn't have a problem with that. She never stopped the trade unions representing the workers though - far from it. They're still there and thank gawd for that because workers need representation and it's because of that that working conditions over the years brought benefits to them. Do you think for a minute that the working conditions and benefits now enjoyed by millions of workers would have been given up willingly by employers? No, they wouldn't have - these benefits and conditions had to be fought for every step of the way otherwise we would still be working a 6 day week for poor pay and conditions.

Maggie took away workers benefits and handed control of our country to the wankers, the bankers, the hedge fund managers, the casino capitalists and any other get rich quick organisation that happened along and what a wonderful job they made of that didn't they. The winter of discontent wasn't a national strike and came about because the government were actually fighting trade unions to cap wage demands and it was over by the time the election came about. The Tories made full use of that but even then they only just scraped in with a double digit majority.

Yes Didge, we're in the shit now and it's not because of the trade unions or British workers. It was called the 'Big Bang'. You should read up on it.

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:This is why some of the left are no better than what they claim of the right. To actually cheer someone dead, who no matter if you think they did wrong, this woman did inspire a generation of women. Hence why she is very important in being the first female Prime Minister in this country.
Nothing will take away these facts, whether you like her or not and why she stands out as an inspirational character to women.
She reached the top, in what was then a "man's world".
So what she did for women is very significant, she inspired other women to succeed where they thought it was impossible.

US President Barack Obama described her as a role-model for women - saying "She stands as an example to our daughters".



Night all

She isn't in the same league as the women we have seen on here who really are trying to make a difference in ending inequality against women everywhere.
I really don't see her figuring anywhere in International Women's Day in any shape or form.

Was I trying to compare her to anyone?
No
You just hate her and thus by hating her are incapable of seeing any good, because as seen some others here on the left take great pleasure jumping for joy at her death, which is again sad and pathetic, because there is no denying that she was inspirational by over coming hurdles to reach the top and she did this being a woman. If you want to compare that to other women, be my guest, which is avoding the whole point about her being able to succeed ion basically what as a "man's world" back them. So tough luck that you do not see here figuring in helping inspire women find equality, because she achieved this voted in where no other woman had achieved before in this country. You have no argument because you hate here and hate to admit she was inspirational to a generation of woman. If you do not like the facts tough, the extyreme left never liike facts. I suggest you get over your hate because you come from a family of miners, as that is what this really is about why you are incapable of being impartial on this point to her inspiration to a generation of women by over coming hurdles that no woman had done before.

I didn't hate her Didge. She had a caring side and I accept that. Couple of examples.

Thatcher: 'Did you think I'd leave you dying?'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7725624.stm

How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window?

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/on-margaret-thatchers-funeral-day-her-favourite-song-how-much-is-that-doggie-in-the-window-marks-60-years-since-topping-the-charts-8576233.html

See, if I had hated her I wouldn't have shown that caring side of her, would I?

Fair enough Irn that you feel that way which is good, sorry but going off the others celbrating which I find in poor taste. So you do not see her as special even though she will be remeberd in history as the first PM with again overcoming a massive hurdle for the time. She made her to the top in the femenist fashion but out of sheer grit and determination.
That takes great courage considering what she had to overcome. So for all the faults you see in her, she still truly also had great qualities.
Never said she got rid of the trade unions but she did not bow down to them and basically took control back from where they had been dictating Goverments. This was needed as the country was near anarchy in the 70's. I am sure again you will agree with that. Again I am all for trade Unions as long as they are not power mad and look to workers rights within the means of the law.Sorry but to moan about who Maggie handed power to whilslt Labour in power later did little to change that really is a moot point.

I would not say we are in the shit, we are on the mend after a very bad recession that Labour allowed to happen at the end of the day. It takes time to fix and why the Tories are more trusted on the economy than labour. Again many people have had their faults, including Churchill who will always be remebered as great to the British people just as Maggi also will be to many people.

Anyhow busy tonight, so enjoy

Tacita Dean, artist

Margaret Thatcher dominated my school and student years and had a big impact on my political coming of age, but not in the way she would have welcomed. I know she is being ennobled now by the gentle gaze of history (and Hollywood) but I remember loathing her at the time and feeling no solidarity with her achievements as a woman. I was an active student feminist and, if anything, she was our anti-feminist icon – everything we didn't aspire to. She was a reactionary who cared little for equality of any sort and who had a contemptuous indifference to the arts.

Linda Grant, author

Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party at the height of the women's movement, yet she was completely apart from our campaigns, our passions and our identity. She was the middle-aged woman with the hats, the pearls, the teeth, the strangled high-pitched voice, and the policies which had nothing to do with equal pay for work of equal value, free abortion on demand or take back the night marches. Her freedom to run for office depended on the traditional accoutrements of a wealthy husband and getting the work of having two children out of the way in one pregnancy. Thatcher's premiership was a wrong, contradictory note for feminism; we regarded her as a man dressed up in a skirt suit. Or a woman who used the traditional weapons of sex and flirting to get what and where she wanted. Perhaps she was ahead of her time and it needed Camille Paglia to understand her: she was one in a long line of powerful femme fatales like the Borgias or certain wives of Roman emperors who fused power with sex. Madonna in Downing Street.

But more prosaically, as much as feminists hated her because she had no solidarity with us, or with women for that matter – she was sui generis, for herself and of herself – there is no question that she was a role model. In the same way that after Obama it could no longer be said that America was so racist it would never elect a black president, Thatcher in Downing Street sent out a straightforward message to women that anything was possible.

The problem remains though that she was so completely unusual that no woman politician since has been remotely like her. I can't think of anyone who, like Thatcher, is twice the man and twice the woman of any other MP.If she was representative of anyone, it wasn't women but a group emerging in the early 80s who rejected class solidarity, knowing their place, and aspired instead: to home ownership, foreign holidays, private education, self-employment, and there were many women among them. She did a great deal to smash the ideas of class that prevailed in the 70s, but smash patriarchy? No.

Mary Beard, classics professor, Cambridge

Well, she wasn't a feminist, nor will she ever be a "feminist icon" in my sense of the word. But we can't deny that having our first woman prime minister was a major symbolic leap forward. And it's salutary for those of us on the left to be reminded that positive social change does sometime come from the right.
Laura Sandys, Conservative MP for South Thanet

Mrs Thatcher is a much more of an icon as a matriarch than as a feminist campaigner. Her political power was never expressed in terms of battling against the male establishment, but as a political personality who dominated the masculine, clubby power structures that she inherited.

Once at the helm, her status as the matriarch could never be questioned. That kept her very safe – safe until the children were no longer interested in doing what Mother says.

I don't think that she had time to consider intellectual feminism but she did and still does represent an interesting trait of female activism that we are living with today. Her political language was focused on women. Owning your own home, setting the household budget, choosing the best school for your child – these messages were framed and delivered by a woman to encourage other women to take the choices that they needed to take for their families. Women were given a new level of political importance and one that has not been lost by subsequent leaders. So, a feminist matriarch but not a feminist icon.

Bidisha, author

Margaret Thatcher is no icon of feminism, freedom, fairness or fashion. She is unique in British history as a pioneering woman prime minister. She has charisma. She has the courage of her convictions. She is a survivor, which most politicians are not.

But she ain't no sister. She likes what macho, sexist, patriarchal men have always liked: war, the defence of the status quo, established power, entrenched inequality, heavily rigged individualist competition and absolute freedom. Not freedom as in emancipation, but the greedy savagery of an unregulated market in which man eats man and woman is neither seen nor heard.

Thatcher was a man-worshipper who couldn't bear the stink of even one woman poisoning her cabinet. She has never said or done anything to help other women. She did nothing (actively) to change the cultural misogyny of British politics, as evidenced by our present virtually all-male, woman-bashing government and by the way women in public life are mocked, patronised, marginalised, drastically under-represented and subjected to severe double standards both within politics and by the media.

A feminist icon is woman-positive and woman-identified. She openly fights machismo and misogyny. On rape, domestic violence, childcare, benefits for single mothers, discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual inequality, Thatcher did nothing.Her stiff serge tailoring, boxy croc handbags, patent court shoes, pussycat bow blouses and set hair have been fetishised by a moronic, apolitical fashion industry. But feminist iconhood has nothing to do with looks, because it is sexist to rate women by our appearance rather than our words and actions, as we are not objects.

That said, Thatcher was no worse than many of the men before her, or since, or now. It disturbs me that she is held up and bashed with especial hatred, base insults and grotesque mockery while male public figures far more loathsome are treated more respectfully. Thatcher's political legacy has been used as an excuse to justify the misogynist backlash against female leadership.

Ami Sedghi, journalist

Championed during the 90s as the "original Spice Girl" by the eponymous girl band, the Iron Lady has been depicted as a strong female icon for my generation. I'm 24. I confess that my knowledge of her politics, gleaned from disapproving parental murmurs, snatched comments and television dramas, is limited. But for me Thatcher is remembered predominantly as the first female to become prime minister.
Hannah Pool, writer

Time may be a great healer but the idea of Thatcher as a feminist icon is as laughable as it is insulting to all those other great women who have fought tirelessly for equal rights. Even if we forget all the hideous things she did – the miners, the crushing of the unions, her stance against South African sanctions – that the woman who reportedly claimed she owed nothing to the women's liberation movement is now being restyled as a feminist shows how little people understand what feminism is about.

The overriding principle of feminism is equality, and those with power helping raise the bar for those without. This is the exact opposite of Thatcher's "me, me, me" Conservatism.
Michele Hanson, columnist

She rose to the top, despite being a woman, so that was an achievement of sorts, but Thatcher set feminism back by setting such a bad example of a woman in power. She's up there with designer vaginas and the pussycat dolls – a cynical bastardisation of what the real fight for women's equality is about. What an odd woman Margaret Thatcher was. She blubbed over her beloved dead father, but barely mentioned her mother. She adored her son, but didn't seem to care much for her daughter. And where were the women in her cabinet? Only one managed to get in, briefly. Margaret seemed to prefer men, especially handsome ones like Cecil Parkinson, or others with whom she could flirt vaguely, or boss about. Because she couldn't have positive discrimination, could she? She wanted women in on merit. But don't tell me she couldn't find any women up to the job. There are several dozen in my immediate neighbourhood.

"What a deeply irritating person she was," says my friend Rosemary, "forever running home early to cook dinner for Dennis. Did you see her in her pinny at the sink?"

Yes, we all did. Thatcher made sure of that. Icon? Do me a favour. She could have been. The grocer's daughter who fought her way up to the top job. But what did she do to help other less fortunate women when she got up there? Even on the way up she'd taken their kiddies' milk away. Then she took away much of their affordable housing by egging everyone on to buy council houses. She privatised the utilities, and up went the household bills, and she crushed the unions. The miners' wives didn't have much to thank her for. And just to show that women can do anything men can do, she started a war, rode around on a tank in her headscarf, created loads more widows, thought herself terrifically grand and used the royal plural for her very own. What a wasted opportunity. From the great heights she looked down and thought not "How can I raise up other women?" but only "How can I poop on the poorer ones?" All she had really done was turn herself into a joke version of a pig-headed man. Feminist icon? No.

Regardless of whether you liked or loathed Margaret Thatcher as a politician, as Britain’s Prime Minister or even as a human being, it is difficult not to have a degree of admiration for what she achieved during her life and political career. From the back streets of sleepy Grantham in Lincolnshire to the corridors of power on a world stage, Thatcher will go down in history as one of the world’s most famous leaders ranked alongside the likes of Kennedy, Gandhi, Mandela, Luther King and, by many, Genghis Khan.

But was she ultimately a great leader? Did she display any or all of the traits of a great leader of people? Perhaps if you take into consideration the way she was ultimately de-throned, with her cabinet turning on her and brutally kicking her out of Number 10, you could say that in the end she couldn’t have been a great leader of people. But then again politics is a dog eat dog world and the ultra-ambitious can turn on even the greatest and most influential people who at one time they served to serve their own ends. But a leader is ultimately someone who leads people not only through the good times (pretty much anyone can do that) but through the hardest of times. A great leader is someone who leads people through change that they don’t necessarily want to be led through, for fear of what may be waiting for them on the otherside.

Already Thatcher is being remembered as the PM who changed Britain in the most radical way imaginable and much of that change was change that people didn’t necessarily see the need for, want or desire.  Few people actually like change. Human beings are, by and large, creatures of habit. People crave the familiar - that’s why we live in houses, go to the same job day in day out, eat pretty much the same five foods, wear the same types of clothes and so on. People don’t like too many risks in their lives, when they find something that works for them they don’t want it to change, even if how they live is becoming outdated. So, when Margaret Thatcher, a relatively young woman and mother from a working class background began some radical reforms to the very fabric of what many thought made Britain great it was no surprise that she divided opinions and many hated everything she stood for.

Just imagine if you were the owner and leader of a large advertising agency in the mid 90’s and you suggested to your management team you were getting rid of swathes of your creatives and art workers to free up cash to employ computer programmers because you ‘think this internet thing is going to be big’. No doubt there would have been much resistance, but wouldn’t your painful decision for change ultimately have been proved right some 10 years later? The fact Thatcher was a woman also can’t have helped her as a leader. Remember this was the Eighties and Britain and it’s attitudes to women were very different to how they are today. Many of her reforms were centred on working class middle aged men, who I’m sure didn’t take kindly to being told by a woman how they were to live their lives in the future.

But has history ultimately proven that the change she forced through was absolutely necessary for Britain? She smashed the Trade Unions, which caused much civil unrest, but could a modern Britain have moved forward on a world stage as a nation of coal miners? While Britain’s great history and heritage is based on industry that didn’t mean that was also going to be its future.  Of course there was the Poll Tax, which may ultimately and unfortunately be what she is remembered for by many people for, particularly those who were the guinea pigs north of the border. That was surely the biggest misjudgment of her political career. I was only a teenager at the time, but was still faced with a Poll Tax bill of £600, which came as quite a shock to a young boy who was just getting used to having a wage in my pocket.

In conclusion, Margaret Thatcher will be remembered in many different ways depending on how your life was affected by her reforms and policies. But ultimately she has to be remembered as a great leader, not because she attained the highest political office possible, but because she enforced change when change was not necessarily wanted but desperately needed and I, personally, think the changes that she forced the nation through have enabled Britain to keep up with the rest of the world since she left power.
As you read this, just think what your life might look like had Margaret Thatcher never existed. Would it be any better?

http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2013/04/09/why-margaret-thatcher-was-great-leader

Brasidas wrote:Fair enough Irn that you feel that way which is good, sorry but going off the others celbrating which I find in poor taste. So you do not see her as special even though she will be remeberd in history as the first PM with again overcoming a massive hurdle for the time. She made her to the top in the femenist fashion but out of sheer grit and determination.
That takes great courage considering what she had to overcome. So for all the faults you see in her, she still truly also had great qualities.
Never said she got rid of the trade unions but she did not bow down to them and basically took control back from where they had been dictating Goverments. This was needed as the country was near anarchy in the 70's. I am sure again you will agree with that. Again I am all for trade Unions as long as they are not power mad and look to workers rights within the means of the law.Sorry but to moan about who Maggie handed power to whilslt Labour in power later did little to change that really is a moot point.

I would not say we are in the shit, we are on the mend after a very bad recession that Labour allowed to happen at the end of the day. It takes time to fix and why the Tories are more trusted on the economy than labour. Again many people have had their faults, including Churchill who will always be remebered as great to the British people just as Maggi also will be to many people.

Anyhow busy tonight, so enjoy

Didge, I never celebrated Thatcher's death indeed I added my own RIP on the SF thread that was created about it.
She was a woman, and elderly woman and a mother at that who suffered ill health so count me out of the celebrations.
I hated her policies and the effect it had on our country. She got to the top but she pulled the ladder up behind her. How many women were in Thacher's cabinets after her election wins? None. She did promote Edwina Currie into one of them and Currie has an interesting tale to tell (no not John Major). She went to Thatcher and asked her for funding to start up Britain's breast screening clinic for women - Thatcher refused it. She went back again and showed her that in the long run it would save money - did the trick. How awful is that?

She doesn't deserve a place in International Women's Day. Women featured on here do simply because of the efforts they have made in tackling inequality wherever it appears. Empowerment of women is the greatest threat to the barbaric practices that take place under the banner of Islam and that's the way to defeat it.

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:Fair enough Irn that you feel that way which is good, sorry but going off the others celbrating which I find in poor taste. So you do not see her as special even though she will be remeberd in history as the first PM with again overcoming a massive hurdle for the time. She made her to the top in the femenist fashion but out of sheer grit and determination.
That takes great courage considering what she had to overcome. So for all the faults you see in her, she still truly also had great qualities.
Never said she got rid of the trade unions but she did not bow down to them and basically took control back from where they had been dictating Goverments. This was needed as the country was near anarchy in the 70's. I am sure again you will agree with that. Again I am all for trade Unions as long as they are not power mad and look to workers rights within the means of the law.Sorry but to moan about who Maggie handed power to whilslt Labour in power later did little to change that really is a moot point.

I would not say we are in the shit, we are on the mend after a very bad recession that Labour allowed to happen at the end of the day. It takes time to fix and why the Tories are more trusted on the economy than labour. Again many people have had their faults, including Churchill who will always be remebered as great to the British people just as Maggi also will be to many people.

Anyhow busy tonight, so enjoy

Didge, I never celebrated Thatcher's death indeed I added my own RIP on the SF thread that was created about it.
She was a woman, and elderly woman and a mother at that who suffered ill health so count me out of the celebrations.
I hated her policies and the effect it had on our country. She got to the top but she pulled the ladder up behind her. How many women were in Thacher's cabinets after her election wins? None. She did promote Edwina Currie into one of them and Currie has an interesting tale to tell (no not John Major). She went to Thatcher and asked her for funding to start up Britain's breast screening clinic for women - Thatcher refused it. She went back again and showed her that in the long run it would save money - did the trick. How awful is that?

She doesn't deserve a place in International Women's Day. Women featured on here do simply because of the efforts they have made in tackling inequality wherever it appears. Empowerment of women is the greatest threat to the barbaric practices that take place under the banner of Islam and that's the way to defeat it.

As I said fair enough in regards to yourself but others poorly celebrated.
The fact is being the political stance you are and what has happened to your family (no offense meant by this) then I understand why you would clearly see her in no favorable light. Again I understand that, but I really do not agree with you because your bias against her will deny you looking back at her life impartially, you have to admit that? Sorry you are very anti heras how many debates have you even started about her in a nagative light? That to me shows the impact this lady had for good or bad on people and in your case clearly one of seeing mainly the bad in her. Again she overcome hurdles Irn and changed the country and will be remebered as great .
I am not asking you to view her as great, that is your choice and you are welcome to it.

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:Fair enough Irn that you feel that way which is good, sorry but going off the others celbrating which I find in poor taste. So you do not see her as special even though she will be remeberd in history as the first PM with again overcoming a massive hurdle for the time. She made her to the top in the femenist fashion but out of sheer grit and determination.
That takes great courage considering what she had to overcome. So for all the faults you see in her, she still truly also had great qualities.
Never said she got rid of the trade unions but she did not bow down to them and basically took control back from where they had been dictating Goverments. This was needed as the country was near anarchy in the 70's. I am sure again you will agree with that. Again I am all for trade Unions as long as they are not power mad and look to workers rights within the means of the law.Sorry but to moan about who Maggie handed power to whilslt Labour in power later did little to change that really is a moot point.

I would not say we are in the shit, we are on the mend after a very bad recession that Labour allowed to happen at the end of the day. It takes time to fix and why the Tories are more trusted on the economy than labour. Again many people have had their faults, including Churchill who will always be remebered as great to the British people just as Maggi also will be to many people.

Anyhow busy tonight, so enjoy

Didge, I never celebrated Thatcher's death indeed I added my own RIP on the SF thread that was created about it.
She was a woman, and elderly woman and a mother at that who suffered ill health so count me out of the celebrations.
I hated her policies and the effect it had on our country. She got to the top but she pulled the ladder up behind her. How many women were in Thacher's cabinets after her election wins? None. She did promote Edwina Currie into one of them and Currie has an interesting tale to tell (no not John Major). She went to Thatcher and asked her for funding to start up Britain's breast screening clinic for women - Thatcher refused it. She went back again and showed her that in the long run it would save money - did the trick. How awful is that?

She doesn't deserve a place in International Women's Day. Women featured on here do simply because of the efforts they have made in tackling inequality wherever it appears. Empowerment of women is the greatest threat to the barbaric practices that take place under the banner of Islam and that's the way to defeat it.

Exactly. Internation Women's Day is for Women who have done great things and promoted the cause of women. The very last person who did that was Maggie Thatcher. She wouldn't even take VAT of sanitary wear when told that poor women found it very difficult to afford them and were still using rags!!!

To all the wonderful women in the world who are fighting for equality and making a difference, or just leading their lives the best way they can in the face of horrendous difficulties - I salute you, from the women in power to the women trying to protect their families from the horrors of war and hunger.

Almost a year after the Daily Mail infamously described the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, as “the most dangerous woman in Britain”, the University of Edinburgh is using the label as a way to explore the idea of dangerous women and to highlight women’s stories, perspectives and experiences.
The university’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities is inviting contributors to respond online to the question: “What does it mean to be a dangerous woman?”. Responses will be published on the project’s website and on its twitter account.
Sturgeon has already explained why she is taking part in the project: “Since becoming first minister, I have looked to use my position to send out a positive and strong message to girls and women that there should be no limit to your ambition. Terms like ‘dangerous’ belittle the positions of women in power by implying that we should be feared, not trusted or not skilled enough to do the job. I want to challenge the status quo and set an ambitious agenda to make Scotland a fairer and more prosperous nation where opportunities are open to everyone and where everyone is able to contribute their talent, skill and commitment.”

What does equality mean to you? Olaoluwa Abagun, a young leader in Nigeria with the organisation Women Deliver, says:

In 2014, I shared a picture with some of the Nigerian adolescent girls I work with of a female civil engineer in her bright orange overalls, deeply engrossed in a building project with her all-male-but-one team. The girls cringed. They all thought it was a ‘weird’ place for a young woman to be. To my mind, equality means that this table of ‘weirdness’ is flipped, and all members of my society cringe instead at the absence of women across several socioeconomic spaces.

Women’s rights activists march on International Women’s Day in Delhi, India. Activists are demanding that parliament passes the women’s reservation bill, which reserves Indian legislative seats for women

A poll commissioned for the London Southbank Centre’s [url=http:// http://wow.southbankcentre.co.uk/]Women of the World[/url] (Wow) festival reveals some startling statistics about women and work.

• seven out of 10 women in the UK have experienced unwanted sexual comments in public
  
• almost half of working women receive sexual comments at work
  
• three-quarters believed it would take more than 10 years to see an equal number of male and female judges, chief executives, MPs or engineers
  
• one-quarter believe the gender gap would not close for at least 20 years
  
• 48% of women lacked confidence to ask for a pay rise (compared with 31% of men)
  

More from http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/live/2016/mar/08/international-womens-day-2016-iwd-live

Thanks Eddie.

No problem

Tech City International Women’s Day Showcase 2016

When: Mar 8 2016

Where: London, United Kingdom

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A unique celebration of women’s work in technology & the creative industries




Join us on Tuesday March 8th 2016 for the fourth edition of Tech City International Women’s Day Showcase.

An evening showcase of women-led businesses & projects across technology & the creative industries, all ticket sales go to a local charity.


http://www.internationalwomensday.com/Activity/3637/Tech-City-International-Women-s-Day-Showcase-2016

Nice to see technical stuff getting in.

sassy wrote:Nicko, I have no wish to put down what happened to you, but no one has ever gone one strike over a bacon sandwich, just because something is protrayed one way in the press doesn't make it true.  Workers need unions, without them they have no voice, no recompense, no way to get justice and can be walked all over on the whim of a bad employer.

Give you a for instance.  I was a Finance Manager of a smallish casting company that made belt buckles, enamelled cuff links etc, had a turnover of about £1million a year.

Because I was the Finance Manager and had a link to the bank, I could tell them at any time how much money they had, how much was due to come in, how much was due to go out and how much profit we had.

I found a report that the casting shop air was full of heavy metals and investigated.  The pollution in the air could cause people to become infertile.  Most of the people who worked there were under the age of 25.  When we had the next executive meeting a couple of days later, I brought it up and said we had plenty of money in hand to put in a proper filtration system.  It was rejected out of hand.  I resigned on the spot and contacted Health and Safety, and they had to put in the filtration system.

Those kids had no union.  They could have complained until they were blue in the face, they would have been sacked, and jobs were hard to come by.

If those kids had been in a Union, the Union would have backed their case, because I could have been the type of person who hung on to my job and said to hell with them.

That's why I became a union official in my next job, as was the Managing Director who was a friend, and that's why I advise everyone to belong to a union, you never know when you are going to need it.

Oh really, how interesting.

Unions today are pussycats, hardly worth the subscription.

Remember fatter for using our police on horseback to ride down our minuz

I also remember her for saving the Falklands so to speak.

I also remember the cow crying when she got the boot.

Again Stormee, you have proved my point, your posts have nothing to do with the thread, which is now about INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY 2016.  The fact you chose to comment on something I said last year, and not to comment on the actual content, but just to make a snidey remark, shows you up yet again for what you are.

He is talking about Thatcher one of the most influential women in this country, the first woman PM. That is about on topic as it gets in regards to international women's day, even if I disagree with some of his views as to me she inspired a generation of women.

I would choose to post about Elizabeth 1.   A strong woman ruling England in a man's world.   She managed to survive political intrigue and became one of England's greatest monarchs.  If I had a time machine, I'd love to go meet her.  

HoratioTarr wrote:I would choose to post about Elizabeth 1.   A strong woman ruling England in a man's world.   She managed to survive political intrigue and became one of England's greatest monarchs.  If I had a time machine, I'd love to go meet her.  

Not one of my personal favorites I have to admit Horatio, though interesting choice and she was for her time an astounding woman.
Cass knows this era of history, the Tudors better than I do. She would be great to give her views on this.

HoratioTarr wrote:I would choose to post about Elizabeth 1.   A strong woman ruling England in a man's world.   She managed to survive political intrigue and became one of England's greatest monarchs.  If I had a time machine, I'd love to go meet her.  

You and me both!  She did some brilliant things and some awful things, I'd love to get to know the woman underneath the face she had to put on for others.  You don't have a mother beheaded without being really scarred for life.

Another one I'd like to be able to talk to is Emilie du Chatelet, she was French nobility, but in the early 1700s after having her children, began to study maths and physics, she had an affair with Voltaire, had a laboratory and translated Isaac Newton's Principia. All that, and she died before she was 44!

sassy wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:I would choose to post about Elizabeth 1.   A strong woman ruling England in a man's world.   She managed to survive political intrigue and became one of England's greatest monarchs.  If I had a time machine, I'd love to go meet her.  

You and me both!  She did some brilliant things and some awful things, I'd love to get to know the woman underneath the face she had to put on for others.  You don't have a mother beheaded without being really scarred for life.

Which mother? Mary Stuart? Her son was grown up when she was executed.

Raggamuffin wrote:

sassy wrote:

You and me both!  She did some brilliant things and some awful things, I'd love to get to know the woman underneath the face she had to put on for others.  You don't have a mother beheaded without being really scarred for life.

Which mother? Mary Stuart? Her son was grown up when she was executed.

Her mother was Anne Boleyn

sassy wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

Which mother? Mary Stuart? Her son was grown up when she was executed.

Her mother was Anne Boleyn

Oh I see. I thought you were referring to her having someone beheaded.

This is interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35660047

This is an older poster but one I've enjoyed sharing often...

Didge wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:I would choose to post about Elizabeth 1.   A strong woman ruling England in a man's world.   She managed to survive political intrigue and became one of England's greatest monarchs.  If I had a time machine, I'd love to go meet her.  

Not one of my personal favorites I have to admit Horatio, though interesting choice and she was for her time an astounding woman.
Cass knows this era of history, the Tudors better than I do. She would be great to give her views on this.

I like her. I think she was slightly mentally unstable due to her upbringing and having Henry VIII as a father would be enough to send anyone round the bend. Then having to deal with her sister (now she was a total basket case) and all that entailed. Sometimes she came across as the hysterical virgin she portrayed herself as. Yes I do think she slept with Leicester but then convinced herself she didn't when his first wife died and he was pressing for marriage (no I don't think he contrived in his wife's death). Also she was a easily led by her hormones from a young age (Thomas Seymour anyone?)

She was a great manipulator but then again she had some very strong players such as Cecil and Walshingham. She also faced some formidable odds with most of the then known world wanting to kill her.

I think she let herself down by the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Also by fooling around with Francis Duke of Anjou and then later Leicester's stepson Essex. Very unseemly. She also treated her female relations extremely poorly (The Greys).

Cass wrote:

I like her. I think she was slightly mentally unstable due to her upbringing and having Henry VIII as a father would be enough to send anyone round the bend. Then having to deal with her sister (now she was a total basket case) and all that entailed. Sometimes she came across as the hysterical virgin she portrayed herself as. Yes I do think she slept with Leicester but then convinced herself she didn't when his first wife died and he was pressing for marriage (no I don't think he contrived in his wife's death). Also she was a easily led by her hormones from a young age (Thomas Seymour anyone?)

She was a great manipulator but then again she had some very strong players such as Cecil and Walshingham. She also faced some formidable odds with most of the then known world wanting to kill her.

I think she let herself down by the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Also by fooling around with Francis Duke of Anjou and then later Leicester's stepson Essex. Very unseemly. She also treated her female relations extremely poorly (The Greys).

Have either of you watched the PBS Masterpiece series 'Wolf Hall' ???
Excellent and I think that it's going to be re-televised this coming April. 

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/programs/series/wolf-hall/
Tony® Award-winning actor Mark Rylance (Twelfth Night) stars as Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall, the 2016 Golden Globe® winner for Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.
Wolf Hall follows Cromwell, the enigmatic advisor to King Henry VIII, as he maneuvers the corridors of power in the Tudor court. The six-part series follows the back-room dealings of this accomplished power broker, from humble beginnings, who must survive deadly political intrigue.

Cass wrote:

Didge wrote:


Not one of my personal favorites I have to admit Horatio, though interesting choice and she was for her time an astounding woman.
Cass knows this era of history, the Tudors better than I do. She would be great to give her views on this.

I like her. I think she was slightly mentally unstable due to her upbringing and having Henry VIII as a father would be enough to send anyone round the bend. Then having to deal with her sister (now she was a total basket case) and all that entailed. Sometimes she came across as the hysterical virgin she portrayed herself as. Yes I do think she slept with Leicester but then convinced herself she didn't when his first wife died and he was pressing for marriage (no I don't think he contrived in his wife's death). Also she was a easily led by her hormones from a young age (Thomas Seymour anyone?)

She was a great manipulator but then again she had some very strong players such as Cecil and Walshingham. She also faced some formidable odds with most of the then known world wanting to kill her.

I think she let herself down by the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Also by fooling around with Francis Duke of Anjou and then later Leicester's stepson Essex. Very unseemly. She also treated her female relations extremely poorly (The Greys).

Hi Me Lady

Am about to read a book of Sir Francis Drake, as its been sometime since I have read up on the era, who to me was instrumental in taking the fight to the Spanish in the newly explored West Indies and Americas. In reality he was no more than a pirate, but he was certainly romanticized by the English as a hero for sometime way up until the Victorian times that is for sure. As I say Elizabeth had to deal with a continued upheaval in the lands for the time, which would have been difficult for any monarch let alone for the standing of how women were perceived for the time and for that aspect she truly to deserves high standing, but as you have pointed out she had and did many wrongs also. I think the biggest challenge she ever had was not succumbing to marriage, where to her I guess this meant having a constant strain on her power. Still an interesting time period which really saw the emergence of the start of a English challenge to the Naval power of the Spanish and Portuguese.

As an after thought and I know you have plenty of inspirational women you have read about.

Who would you place as the top 5 inspirational women in the in British Isle's history?
The same with American history?

Raggamuffin wrote:

sassy wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:I would choose to post about Elizabeth 1.   A strong woman ruling England in a man's world.   She managed to survive political intrigue and became one of England's greatest monarchs.  If I had a time machine, I'd love to go meet her.  

You and me both!  She did some brilliant things and some awful things, I'd love to get to know the woman underneath the face she had to put on for others.  You don't have a mother beheaded without being really scarred for life.

Which mother? Mary Stuart? Her son was grown up when she was executed.

I have alwasy though Mary was better, mainly because you can see a real person beneath and a dog lover too.

Mary was not beheaded with a single strike. The first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head. The second blow severed the neck, except for a small bit of sinew, which the executioner cut through using the axe. Afterward, he held her head aloft and declared, "God save the Queen." At that moment, the auburn tresses in his hand turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground, revealing that Mary had very short, grey hair.^[222] A small dog owned by the queen, a Skye terrier, is said to have been hiding among her skirts, unseen by the spectators. Following the beheading, it refused to be parted from its owner's body and was covered in her blood, until it was forcibly taken away and washed.^[223] Items supposedly worn or carried by Mary at her execution are of doubtful provenance;^[224] contemporary accounts state that all her clothing, the block, and everything touched by her blood was burnt in the fireplace of the Great Hall to obstruct relic-hunters

Aspca- no I'm not a historical fiction fan. I have read too much on it and when I come across inaccuracies I start yelling at the Tv/movie screen/start ranting at the book. Poor Mr. C ...so embarrassing for him.

Didge - good question. I will have to think about it and get back to you. Shed load of stuff going on at work and I have an adult program/author visit on tomorrow.

Veya- she was a nicer person but sadly her circumstances needed someone stronger. She was very similar to Elizabeth in many ways. She would've been a much better Queen Consort than Regnant. Her biggest error of judgement was marrying Bothwell - although I I do believe he raped her and then she had to marry him - and then fleeing into England.

Cass wrote:Aspca- no I'm not a historical fiction fan. I have read too much on it and when I come across inaccuracies I start yelling at the Tv/movie screen/start ranting at the book. Poor Mr. C ...so embarrassing for him.

Didge - good question. I will have to think about it and get back to you. Shed load of stuff going on at work and I have an adult program/author visit on tomorrow.

No worries me Lady, don't over do things and look forward to who you decide to choose and reasons as to why

I missed this on the day but I want to add this as it's worthy of inclusion...

Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators, including Joint List MK Dov Khenin, take part in a march against the occupation, Beit Jala, West Bank, March 4, 2016.

The march began at the Husan junction on Route 60 — the southern West Bank’s main north-south artery that connects Jerusalem, Beit Jala, the Gush Etzion settlements, and Hebron — and ended the “tunnels checkpoint,” where a small demonstration was held.
The demonstrators chanted slogans against gender violence in Israel and Palestine, as well as against home demolitions and for a two-state solutions. At one point they released hundreds of balloons over the separation wall.

http://972mag.com/watch-palestinians-israelis-march-to-mark-internationl-womens-day/117705/

And I want to add one other woman for this year - Angela Merkel. Angela Merkel is a shining light in a sea of darkness for all these refugees fleeing from the terror and destruction that is taking place in their homelands. She shines the spotlight on another 26 EU leaders and their governments who see the despair and the suffering on the borders of the EU and they do little or pretty much nothing at all.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

Irn if you think for one minute, that that was all Merkel's idea.....just lol

Merkels wants ******G, allowing all that useless lot to invade other countriz.

Her own Krauts are turning on her.

Angela will go down in history all right, but not for the reason you give.

Irn Bru wrote:And I want to add one other woman for this year - Angela Merkel. Angela Merkel is a shining light in a sea of darkness for all these refugees fleeing from the terror and destruction that is taking place in their homelands. She shines the spotlight on another 26 EU leaders and their governments who see the despair and the suffering on the borders of the EU and they do little or pretty much nothing at all.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

Too right, she saw the suffering and did something about it.

She did something about it allright, caused chaos across Europe.

Which is going to cost her being in power and no doubt end up seeing many genuine asylum seekers kicked out when she should have checked all those entering in the first place. When its evident many migrants jumped on the bandwagon of the crisis and got in claiming as if they were asylum seekers.

Not the brightest move at all, which will iun the end see more suffer, through her incompetence. She took in far too many over a million and for any nation to cope with that is a mountain to climb and people in Germany are the ones out of pocket for this

sassy wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:And I want to add one other woman for this year - Angela Merkel. Angela Merkel is a shining light in a sea of darkness for all these refugees fleeing from the terror and destruction that is taking place in their homelands. She shines the spotlight on another 26 EU leaders and their governments who see the despair and the suffering on the borders of the EU and they do little or pretty much nothing at all.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

Too right, she saw the suffering and did something about it.

Sassy she was TOLD what to do!! Jeez aloo

You might like what was dine but it wasn't her idea or her motion - she's just a puppet like they all are

Yes, indeed; leave those Syrian refugees by the thousands - dumped into a country already struggling with their very own deep financial fiasco and over burdened social services!  Yes, indeed --- that would have been the perfect plan; if the nations involved in the EU really wanted Greece to fail and a HUGE way and make them the sacrificial lamb --- surely that wouldn't have had ANY IMPACT on the rest of the members of the EU currency! 

Panos Kammenos, Greece's defence minister, threatens to open country's borders to refugees – including potential members of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) - unless Athens receives debt crisis support...
"If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants, and it will be even worse for Berlin if in that wave of millions of economic migrants there will be some jihadists of the Islamic State too.”
Mr Kammenos, who is the leader of the Right-wing Independent Greeks party which is in coalition with Greece’s ruling far-Left Syriza government, said that the EU’s passport free “Schengen” travel zone left the eurozone vulnerable.
"If they strike us, we will strike them. We will give to migrants from everywhere the documents they need to travel in the Schengen area, so that the human wave could go straight to Berlin,” he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11459675/Greeces-defence-minister-threatens-to-send-migrants-including-jihadists-to-Western-Europe.html

Something many find hard to swallow, but when Greece kept asking for some solutions and other nations were reluctant to offer up --- that left Greece with no other options but to PLAY HARD BALL.

Gee, and PM Merkel took him at his word and tried to offer up a solution for both of the refugees and the nation of Greece!  She broke the ice and made concessions --- while so many other nations just stood around wringing their collective hands in stupefied confusion! 
And that 'stupefied-confusion' wasn't helping Greece or the thousands pouring into Greece daily!

aspca4ever wrote:
Yes, indeed; leave those Syrian refugees by the thousands - dumped into a country already struggling with their very own deep financial fiasco and over burdened social services!  Yes, indeed --- that would have been the perfect plan; if the nations involved in the EU really wanted Greece to fail and a HUGE way and make them the sacrificial lamb --- surely that wouldn't have had ANY IMPACT on the rest of the members of the EU currency! 

Panos Kammenos, Greece's defence minister, threatens to open country's borders to refugees – including potential members of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) - unless Athens receives debt crisis support...
"If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants, and it will be even worse for Berlin if in that wave of millions of economic migrants there will be some jihadists of the Islamic State too.”
Mr Kammenos, who is the leader of the Right-wing Independent Greeks party which is in coalition with Greece’s ruling far-Left Syriza government, said that the EU’s passport free “Schengen” travel zone left the eurozone vulnerable.
"If they strike us, we will strike them. We will give to migrants from everywhere the documents they need to travel in the Schengen area, so that the human wave could go straight to Berlin,” he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11459675/Greeces-defence-minister-threatens-to-send-migrants-including-jihadists-to-Western-Europe.html

Something many find hard to swallow, but when Greece kept asking for some solutions and other nations were reluctant to offer up --- that left Greece with no other options but to PLAY HARD BALL.

Gee, and PM Merkel took him at his word and tried to offer up a solution for both of the refugees and the nation of Greece!  She broke the ice and made concessions --- while so many other nations just stood around wringing their collective hands in stupefied confusion! 
And that 'stupefied-confusion' wasn't helping Greece or the thousands pouring into Greece daily!

I have a friend who has recently been over to Greece to help the refugees.  She sent back load of information and pictures, including many of shopkeepers donating goods, from nappies to food and drink, to help the refugees.  Even though they are overrun it is amazing the goodwill they have to them and the help they are giving.  They are running a scheme to get pushchairs and babyholders for the parents who are struggling with young children.   In fact women and children now account for half the refugees that are arriving  ( http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dff3b5ea-bf99-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2.html#axzz43FXHcc1b )

Sassy, will you post some of your fotoz your friend has sent you. Thank you.