Today is International Women’s Day.

To mark the occasion, The Independenthas
a few thought-provoking figures. But some are not as voluptuous as you
might hope, like the fact that only 1% of the titled land in the world
is owned by women and 12 is the number of world leaders who are women
(out of 191 members of the United Nations). In the EU, women comprise
3% of chief execs of major companies.

Meanwhile, some figures are still alarmingly high. 70% of the 1.2 billion
people living in poverty are women and children. 85 million girls
worldwide are unable to attend school, compared with 45 million boys.
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).

There’s also an explanation as to why it’s always the suits heading to the
podium on Oscars night: men directed nine out of every ten films made
in 2004.