Although we have entered the second decade of the second millennium, there still seem to be challenges in the workplace when it comes to being a woman.

Some of you may have seen the drop dead gorgeous Daniel Craig appearing in an advert for International Women’s Day – voiced over by Dame Judi Dench.  The message was about how women across the world still don’t have it as good as men.  Some of the statistics are truly shocking.  According to the video, men are still earning more than women, have better job prospects, are far less likely to be victims of sexual assault and having a child poses virtually no risk to a man’s career.

Women complete two-thirds of the work in the world yet only earn ten percent of the total income and own a mere one percent of the property. 70 million girls do not have access to a basic education and 60 million girls are sexually abused on their way to school.  At least one in four women are victims of domestic violence and every single week in the UK two women are killed by a current or former partner.

Now, clearly these statistics are both undeniable and undesirable and naturally we should all be doing what we can to change it.  And of course, isn’t it a bit shocking that even in this New Millennium it seems some things haven’t changed.

But ironically, this is what I found deeply irritating about the video – no, not the sight of Daniel Craig in drag – but the fact that one thing most definitely hasn’t changed.  We women are still being portrayed as victims.  In fact, so much so that it requires a man dressed in drag to get the message across as apparently we can’t speak for ourselves?  And who is the message aimed at?  Well, presumably men.  The subliminal message being that we will be ‘rescued’ from this terrible inequality by the actions of men.

Well, I’m sorry to disagree (actually no, I’m not!).  I don’t believe it will take the actions of men to change how women experience the world.  I believe it will be the actions of women.

In seeing the challenges we face it is often too easy to forget how powerful and effective we can also be.

Did you know:

• We’re safer drivers?  Men are 77 percent more likely to die in a car accident than women.
• We graduate university more often.
• We eat healthier.
• We have stronger immune systems.
• We live longer.
• We’re better managers, especially in this economy
• We’re less likely to lose our jobs
• We invest better. A study of 100,000 portfolios showed that women’s investment returns outperform men’s, 18 percent to 11 percent…
  ….and this is just a sample.

It seems to me that until we own the solutions to the problems and stop relying on others to fix it for us, in particular men, the negative statistics are never going to change.  But more than that…statistics in relation to status, pay and performance miss some really key underlying points.  Would we sacrifice children for pay?  Many women wouldn’t.  Many men do.  Would we sacrifice healthy relationships and a happy workplace for promotion to a higher status role?  Many women wouldn’t.  Many men do.  I suspect that some of these statistics are not indicative of us being victims, but because some women have made sane sensible choices about what matters in their life. 

The point is, apart from when physicality is the issue (let’s face it, men are bigger, heavier and physically stronger than us…we rarely win a fist-fight with them!) we have many more choices and options than we think we do.

Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the American President, Theodore Roosevelt once said ‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent’.  I could not agree more.