International Womens' Day yesterday was overshadowed for me by other local events, but there was one occurrence which had me going "wait - what?" and would have had Germaine Greer rolling in her grave if she was already dead - and could quite possibly make her stroke out now.

It was an email I received, from the financial education dept of the parent company of the bank I work for, and it was inviting me to a very useful seminar. The title? "Why a Man is Not a Financial Plan."
Let that sink in. Take your time, I'll wait.

Then my facebook feed last night was filled with mentions of the day, and messages like "thank god for women, otherwise there'd be no sandwiches!". I know they're meant in fun but they still niggled. The final straw was a photo posted by the HDT Special Vehicles page - a picture of a woman polishing the wheels of a Holden, accompanied by a message hoping that this lady - who has come such a long way, baby! - would "enjoy you're day". I kid you not.

So how far have we really come? There's still a noticeable pay gap, and women still retire with less super (a generalisation, but one that holds true across numerous pay scales). There ARE more and more women in public life, in politics, in the boardrooms, and western women are certainly freer than we were even 30 years ago, but there's still some distance to travel. And patronising comments akin to the ones I saw yesterday show me that attitudes are changing incredibly slowly, if at all.