Caroline > Caroline's Quotes

“Egypt, the country that boasts the first evidence of FGM some four thousand years ago, today offers the highest incidence of the practice. Egypt is a country of around 90 million people and, according to UNICEF figures in 2013, has the highest number of women who have been mutilated of any country in the world, nearly 30 million, or 91 per cent of the female population.8 This figure is nearer 100 per cent in the villages of the Upper Nile, where the river cuts a deep, wide passage through the desert plateau.”
― Sue Lloyd Roberts, The War on Women

“And then there is the category ‘Mental Demands’. The Care Assistant scores 2 and the Waste Collector scores 3. ‘What is this about?’ asks Jackie. ‘We are the ones who have to deal with confused and scared old people, we are the ones who have to reassure their families and even cope with bereavements. It is a nonsense. I remember the council chappie coming with a clipboard to do the evaluations. He asked us a few questions and did not bother to stay long enough to watch us at work. I tell you it is the men all sticking together to get the best deals for the men.”
― Sue Lloyd Roberts, The War on Women

“How is it that a country that gave us Emily Pankhurst and Margaret Thatcher is currently number twenty-eight in the list of countries offering equal pay – behind Bulgaria and Burundi? For every £1 earned by a man, a woman earns 85p. We are all aware of the heart-warming story of the female Dagenham workers who fought for equal pay in the 1960s. It is still happening. Why does a man working in the warehouse at Asda today earn more than a woman at the checkout, whose skills require numeracy and customer relations? Why do women earn, on average, 21 per cent less than men at corporate, managerial level? Why are there so few women at this level? There are mandatory quotas in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. Why is the UK so far behind? Institutionalized misogyny say the Fawcett Society, the campaigning group on equal pay. But, looking back at my own career and the regrets I have about family life, I ask whether women can and should try and compete.”
― Sue Lloyd Roberts, The War on Women

“The research shows one of the biggest pay gaps is between male and female health professionals. It’s been calculated at 27 per cent, which works out as the difference between £18.50 an hour and £25.33.1 The TUC says a key reason for the size of the pay gap in health is the earnings of the best-paid professionals. Top male professionals in health earn nearly £50 an hour, almost twice as much as top-earning women who earn £24.90 an hour. The TUC has found women working in manufacturing occupations experience the next biggest pay gap at 22 per cent less than men. Women working as managers, directors and senior officials experience the next biggest pay gap at 21 per cent, which works out at men getting £26.80 an hour whilst women get just £21.”
― Sue Lloyd Roberts, The War on Women

“Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man’s. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

“thumb. In 1895 a city of London byelaw was passed entitled Curfew on Wife Beating, which made hitting your wife between the hours of 10pm and 7am illegal in order to stop the noise keeping neighbours awake.”
― Tania O'Donnell, A History of Courtship: 800 Years of Seduction Techniques

“There is an apocryphal tale that in the 1885 legislation re-criminalising male homosexuality, lesbianism was also due to become a crime, but Queen Victoria did not believe it existed in England, thinking instead it was some strange French perversion. Whether that is true or not, it is clear that the lack of legislature meant a degree of freedom for lesbians in their courtship that wasn’t there for gay men. Although, regrettably, it also meant that the history of lesbianism is also sadly lacking.”
― Tania O'Donnell, A History of Courtship: 800 Years of Seduction Techniques

“the bad years, as most of Alsace did. We have paid it back but”
― Kiran Millwood Hargrave, The Dance Tree

“seem to have the knack of annoying your aunt.”
― Jodi Taylor, The Nothing Girl