They Talk The Equality Talk But It Is All Bad News

For years equal opportunity for women has been thrust at us at every opportunity. Many men speak all the right words, yet the scales are still heavily balanced against women. In the list of the top wealthiest people in the world, women have a very low profile. Only two women are found in the top 20, at numbers 12 and 13.

In the overall picture, women carry a very low profile in the seats of power."Discrimination is moving at a snail's pace and still needs to be challenged", says Nicole Brewer, of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

"Women are paid less than men for the same work, if paid at all. Women remain vulnerable because they have no economic independence and are constantly threatened by exploitation, violence and abuse. If a woman is empowered, her children and family will be better off", says Author Isabelle Allendale. It seems that for every dollar placed in women's programs, $20 are given to programs for men.

Under a mantle of secrecy, the most powerful and richest people in the world, joined in an unprecedented secret meeting, at the home of the president of the Manhatton medical school, at Rockefeller University, at the invitation of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and David Rockefeller.

"We came together to see if we could join together to do more to help, in the light of the world economic downturn", said one of the people attending. "This group is very committed to philanthropy". In the five hour afternoon/dinner meeting the agenda was how to best use their finances to assist people in the midst of financial crisis.

The list of invitees included such billionaire moguls as, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Peter Petersen, Ted Turner and Eli Broad. All are well known for their philanthropic endeavours. It seems that Oprah Winfrey was the only female billionaire to attend the secret meeting.

Yet for all the moves forward in the equality race, women are still a long way behind the eight ball.

•Women hold less than 1% of departmental heads, media owners, editors, yet are one third of the working journalists
•80% of all purchasing decisions are taken by women
•While women do 66% of the world's work, they only receive 10% of world's income
•Women have ownership of less than 1% of the assets of the world
•42% of Internet users are women, worldwide
•Women are 66% of the 1 billion plus, illiterate adults who have absolutely no access to basic education
•21% of all news items only are on females
Finally - a piece of trivia: Women use 20,000 words a day, compared to 7,000 used by men.