Dear Women of the World

Here it is again: International Women's Day and it's been quite the year, hasn't it?

Here are some of the stats gathered by the UK's Independent newspaper:

1% of the titled land in the world is owned by women

A baby girl born in the UK is likely to live to 81 - but if she is born in Swaziland, she is likely to die at 39

70% of the 1.2 bn people living in poverty are women and children

21% of the world's managers are female

62% of unpaid family workers are female

Women comprise 55% of the world's population aged over 60 years old and 65% of those aged over 80

85m girls worldwide are unable to attend school, compared with 45m boys. In Chad, just 4% of girls go to school.

700,000,000 women are without adequate food, water, sanitation, health care or education (compared with 400,000,000 men)

67% of all illiterate adults are women

1,440 women die each day during childbirth (a rate of one death every minute)

1 in 7 women in Ethiopia die in pregnancy or childbirth (it is one in 19,000 in Britain)

In the US, 35% of lawyers are women but just 5% are partners in law firms

In the EU, women comprise 3% of chief execs of major companies

12 is the number of world leaders who are women (out of 191 members of the United Nations)

Men directed 9 out of every 10 films made in 2004

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Print that out and stick it on your fridge.

And, the next time you hear some young woman rail against those of us who've been feminists and proud of it for decades because she doesn't yet understand what the struggle is all about - fill her in.

To those men who have stood by us and continue to fight, I salute you.