This year's International Women's Day celebrations were nothing if not diverse. Here are some of the things we learned
**Top Gear is "worse than Saudi Arabia"**
In a discussion about women in public life at the Bath literature festival on Saturday, Kirsty Wark was heard to say: "There are more women driving in Saudi Arabia than you will ever see on Top Gear … In fact, you actually have more chance of hosting a driving show in Saudi Arabia than you have of hosting Top Gear." She also spoke about the gender breakdown on the BBC comedy show Mock the Week, saying that only five of 38 guest panellists in the last series were women, and suggested Strictly Come Dancing may not be our greatest ever showcase for screen equality. "What is Bruce Forsyth now – 80-odd? And his female co-presenter is in her 30s. Just imagine the reverse – it's never going to happen." Too true, although we'll watch anything hosted by the magnificent Joan Bakewell. BBC, the ball's in your court.
**Malala Yousafzai is not a typical teenager, part one**
"I want to do politics and it's my dream that people will vote for me," said the young Pakistani campaigner, speaking at the Women of the World (WoW) festival at the Southbank Centre in London. Making her the only teenager interested in politics anywhere. Fact.
**Malala Yousafzai is not a typical teenager, part two**
She doesn't use social media. "I don't use Facebook or Twitter or Instagram – it needs time," she says. But she believes other teenagers should, to change the world, not just hang out with friends. "It's my message to every teenager that this is a great way for you to raise the issues that children are facing, of child trafficking, or FGM. Don't use it to just post pictures and then comment on it and get likes or followers."
**Numbers count**
Karen Ingala Smith spoke movingly at the Million Women Rise march on Saturday about her Counting Dead Women project, which she began at the start of 2012, when seven women were killed by men in the space of just three days. Since then, she has logged the deaths of all women who die as a result of male violence, and has created a petition asking the government to begin analysing and addressing this toll properly. "I can tell you that in the last two years," she said, "at least 32 women in the UK have been killed by their sons and five by their grandsons; that last year, 139 women in the UK were killed through male violence, more than the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan in the last three years – 99 British troops killed in Afghanistan in three years, 139 UK women in one year ... Since I've been counting dead women, I've counted 286 UK women killed through men's violence – 286 women in 787 days is one woman killed every 2.7 days. And these are not 286 isolated incidents. Fatal male violence against women is systemic."
**Men need rights too**
At the WoW festival, Grayson Perry considered modern masculinity, and spoke about his bill of rights for men. His wife Philippa Perry tweeted this bill in full: "We men ask ourselves and others for the following: 1. the right to be vulnerable; 2. the right to be weak; 3. the right to be wrong; 4. the right to be intuitive; 5. the right not to know; 6. the right to be uncertain; 7. the right to be flexible; 8. the right not to be ashamed of any of these things."
**Suffragette style is in**
Outfits harking back 100 years have been dusted off for many a feminist protest in the past few years, and this weekend was no exception. Laura Pankhurst, great-great-granddaughter of suffragette leader Emmeline, led a march through London on Saturday with her mother, Dr Helen Pankhurst, to highlight CARE International's Walk In Her Shoes campaign, which is raising money for women in developing countries who have to walk miles each day to collect water. "Today is a homage," said Dr Pankhurst, "and that's why some of us are dressed up, because the suffragette movement still resonates. People have come with different issues, such as Spanish abortion [rights] or food banks." Up the revolution!
**Fashion wants quotas**
Jane Shepherdson, chief executive of fashion chain Whistles, gave a strong statement in support of quotas to the Telegraph on International Women's Day, before talking about women in public life at the Bath literature festival. "Once you get to board level in a lot of companies, it's very male-dominated," she said. "Unless culturally that changes, you're not really going to see that many more women taking those positions, because women don't want to work in that confrontational environment." For that reason, she thinks quotas for boards would be a good idea. "It's something you can do to kickstart the issue. After it's established, you can relax it."
**Beyoncé is the boss*
*
When a little boy takes charge, he's the boss, when a girl does, she's often called "bossy". Cue a lifetime of girls being uncertain when to raise their hands. Now a new public-service campaign in the US, supported by Beyoncé, Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In organisation and the Girl Scouts, aims to "ban bossy". At the end of a film, Beyoncé says: "I'm not bossy, I'm the boss." Bruce Springsteen, you're so over.
**Words are too powerful to misuse*
*
In a recent six-week period, the word "rape" was used approximately 100,000 times on Twitter in the UK, according to Jamie Bartlett, the director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media. In a study of 500 of these cases they found that about 40% of the time, the word was used in connection with a serious news story. About 30% of the time it was used in a metaphorical or casual way, said Bartlett – "very frequently the word rape is used, referring to a sporting event or a test that people were going to take, and they were using that to describe how well they were going to do" (ie "I'm going to rape that test"). Finally, around 12% of all uses of the word rape on Twitter, were "quite threatening or abusive, so targeted at somebody, with varying degrees of severity. When you look at what that would mean over the course of a single week, you're talking about over 1,000 cases, in English, in the UK alone."
**Talking about Page 3 makes more people want to ban it**
An extra 33,790 people signed the No More Page 3 campaign's petition to get rid of the Sun's daily display of topless pictures in a week, making a total of 171,790 signatures. Campaign founder Lucy Anne Holmes credited extensive coverage after the launch of the Sun's "Coppa Feel" breast cancer awareness campaign as well as International Women's Day events. "Our signatures haven't gone up so much since Rupert Murdoch tweeted a year ago!" she said. The newspaper's owner tweeted that he was considering whether the topless pictures were a bit "last century" and should be replaced by a "halfway house with glamorous fashionistas" in February last year. At the weekend, even Katie Price said the page that launched many careers, including her own, had gone off the boil. "I can't name the top three girls anymore," she said. "Maybe they should bring back Page 7 fellas." Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.
**Top Gear is "worse than Saudi Arabia"**
In a discussion about women in public life at the Bath literature festival on Saturday, Kirsty Wark was heard to say: "There are more women driving in Saudi Arabia than you will ever see on Top Gear … In fact, you actually have more chance of hosting a driving show in Saudi Arabia than you have of hosting Top Gear." She also spoke about the gender breakdown on the BBC comedy show Mock the Week, saying that only five of 38 guest panellists in the last series were women, and suggested Strictly Come Dancing may not be our greatest ever showcase for screen equality. "What is Bruce Forsyth now – 80-odd? And his female co-presenter is in her 30s. Just imagine the reverse – it's never going to happen." Too true, although we'll watch anything hosted by the magnificent Joan Bakewell. BBC, the ball's in your court.
**Malala Yousafzai is not a typical teenager, part one**
"I want to do politics and it's my dream that people will vote for me," said the young Pakistani campaigner, speaking at the Women of the World (WoW) festival at the Southbank Centre in London. Making her the only teenager interested in politics anywhere. Fact.
**Malala Yousafzai is not a typical teenager, part two**
She doesn't use social media. "I don't use Facebook or Twitter or Instagram – it needs time," she says. But she believes other teenagers should, to change the world, not just hang out with friends. "It's my message to every teenager that this is a great way for you to raise the issues that children are facing, of child trafficking, or FGM. Don't use it to just post pictures and then comment on it and get likes or followers."
**Numbers count**
Karen Ingala Smith spoke movingly at the Million Women Rise march on Saturday about her Counting Dead Women project, which she began at the start of 2012, when seven women were killed by men in the space of just three days. Since then, she has logged the deaths of all women who die as a result of male violence, and has created a petition asking the government to begin analysing and addressing this toll properly. "I can tell you that in the last two years," she said, "at least 32 women in the UK have been killed by their sons and five by their grandsons; that last year, 139 women in the UK were killed through male violence, more than the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan in the last three years – 99 British troops killed in Afghanistan in three years, 139 UK women in one year ... Since I've been counting dead women, I've counted 286 UK women killed through men's violence – 286 women in 787 days is one woman killed every 2.7 days. And these are not 286 isolated incidents. Fatal male violence against women is systemic."
**Men need rights too**
At the WoW festival, Grayson Perry considered modern masculinity, and spoke about his bill of rights for men. His wife Philippa Perry tweeted this bill in full: "We men ask ourselves and others for the following: 1. the right to be vulnerable; 2. the right to be weak; 3. the right to be wrong; 4. the right to be intuitive; 5. the right not to know; 6. the right to be uncertain; 7. the right to be flexible; 8. the right not to be ashamed of any of these things."
**Suffragette style is in**
Outfits harking back 100 years have been dusted off for many a feminist protest in the past few years, and this weekend was no exception. Laura Pankhurst, great-great-granddaughter of suffragette leader Emmeline, led a march through London on Saturday with her mother, Dr Helen Pankhurst, to highlight CARE International's Walk In Her Shoes campaign, which is raising money for women in developing countries who have to walk miles each day to collect water. "Today is a homage," said Dr Pankhurst, "and that's why some of us are dressed up, because the suffragette movement still resonates. People have come with different issues, such as Spanish abortion [rights] or food banks." Up the revolution!
**Fashion wants quotas**
Jane Shepherdson, chief executive of fashion chain Whistles, gave a strong statement in support of quotas to the Telegraph on International Women's Day, before talking about women in public life at the Bath literature festival. "Once you get to board level in a lot of companies, it's very male-dominated," she said. "Unless culturally that changes, you're not really going to see that many more women taking those positions, because women don't want to work in that confrontational environment." For that reason, she thinks quotas for boards would be a good idea. "It's something you can do to kickstart the issue. After it's established, you can relax it."
**Beyoncé is the boss*
*
When a little boy takes charge, he's the boss, when a girl does, she's often called "bossy". Cue a lifetime of girls being uncertain when to raise their hands. Now a new public-service campaign in the US, supported by Beyoncé, Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In organisation and the Girl Scouts, aims to "ban bossy". At the end of a film, Beyoncé says: "I'm not bossy, I'm the boss." Bruce Springsteen, you're so over.
**Words are too powerful to misuse*
*
In a recent six-week period, the word "rape" was used approximately 100,000 times on Twitter in the UK, according to Jamie Bartlett, the director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media. In a study of 500 of these cases they found that about 40% of the time, the word was used in connection with a serious news story. About 30% of the time it was used in a metaphorical or casual way, said Bartlett – "very frequently the word rape is used, referring to a sporting event or a test that people were going to take, and they were using that to describe how well they were going to do" (ie "I'm going to rape that test"). Finally, around 12% of all uses of the word rape on Twitter, were "quite threatening or abusive, so targeted at somebody, with varying degrees of severity. When you look at what that would mean over the course of a single week, you're talking about over 1,000 cases, in English, in the UK alone."
**Talking about Page 3 makes more people want to ban it**
An extra 33,790 people signed the No More Page 3 campaign's petition to get rid of the Sun's daily display of topless pictures in a week, making a total of 171,790 signatures. Campaign founder Lucy Anne Holmes credited extensive coverage after the launch of the Sun's "Coppa Feel" breast cancer awareness campaign as well as International Women's Day events. "Our signatures haven't gone up so much since Rupert Murdoch tweeted a year ago!" she said. The newspaper's owner tweeted that he was considering whether the topless pictures were a bit "last century" and should be replaced by a "halfway house with glamorous fashionistas" in February last year. At the weekend, even Katie Price said the page that launched many careers, including her own, had gone off the boil. "I can't name the top three girls anymore," she said. "Maybe they should bring back Page 7 fellas." Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.