So how far have we come?...all the way from suffragette Emmeline Pankhust to Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham

9:12am Tuesday 6th March 2007

WOMEN have won many victories over the past 100 years, from the vote to the right to contraception and the chance to return to work after having children.

In the past three decades, we have seen the rise of the supermum' who juggles raising a family, running a household and forging ahead with her career.

It is International Women's Day on Thursday, traditionally a time to celebrate women's lives. But it's also an opportunity to take stock and ask: do women really have it all?

Women's campaigning group the Fawcett Society certainly doesn't think so. Despite the feminist revolution, it argues that social and economic justice is still a long way off. It reveals: l Women working full-time are paid on average 17 per cent less an hour than men (or 38 per cent less if they work part-time) l Women make up less than 20 per cent of MPs and ethnic minority women make up just 0.3 per cent of MPs l Ninety-six per cent of executive directors of the UK's top 100 companies are men.

l Out of every 100 rape cases reported to the police, just six end in the rapist being caught and punished.

l The number of women in jail has more than doubled in ten years - because the courts are getting harsher, not because women are committing more crime.

l At home, where both partners have full time jobs, in seven out of ten cases the woman does most of the housework.

Surveys also show that women are increasingly unhappy with their bodies. A poll of women under 35 by the BBC last month found one third of size 12 women describing themselves as fat or overweight, with half of all respondents saying they would consider plastic surgery.

So is being a women in the 21st century really that bleak?

We asked a wide selection of women from Yorkshire for their views...

MP Anne McIntosh, 52, is the Conservative MP for Vale Of York. She is married with no children.

"We have come far, but there is still a lot to do. Even under a Labour government, women still don't receive equal pay for equal work. David Cameron has taken a bullish line on this and put women and the family at the centre of our policies. We'd like to give mothers the choice whether to stay at home to bring up their children or go to work and have childcare. We are also looking at returning the transferable tax allowance. Labour's tax credits have been a nightmare to administer and I've probably had more letters from women bringing up children about them than anything."

Broadcaster Julia Booth, 49, works for BBC Radio York. She is also a qualified counsellor who specialises in eating disorders. She is married with three teenage daughters.

"I think women's week is a good time to evaluate our lives. I feel quite positive really. I have three teenage daughters and I can see the difference between their lives and mine and between mine and my mother's.

My mum chose to be a stay-at-home mum, but I have mostly worked, which has been very hard at times; the pressures of bringing up children, a career and running a home. My daughters seem very empowered. They are not going to put up with a man who won't do their fair share of things, including looking after children. For my daughter's generation of younger women, I really think they have never had it so good."

Businesswoman Denise Howard formerly owned YorkBoat and now runs York estate agency, Smilesallround. She has been married for 21 years and has one daughter. In 2002 she received an OBE for services to tourism..

"I don't know what we need a women's week for. We focus on the wrong questions sometimes by focusing on things such as this instead of the things that matter, such as how we go about making the world of work a place where people want to come to work, take pride in what they do, and feel valued and are making a contribution.

I truly want to make an environment like that whether male or female. I'm not trying to belittle the issue but everybody is different.

I've never been a fan of rules for rules sake. As a society, we talk about rights as though everything would be fine if we legislate for it. But the world is not like that, life is complex. When you look at research, the people struggling in schools are boys and that's a worry for the future."

Grandmother Liz Wright, 67, has three grown-up children and seven grandchildren. She runs Ivy Cottage products, making jams, chutneys and cakes from her home at Wilberfoss, York "I don't think women have bitten off more than they can chew. I think women are capable of holding down two things at once. If you have a career, it makes you a more interesting person, gives you a much better outlook on life and makes you happier at home. If you have young children, you have got to put them first. The time you have them when they are small is short because they grow up so fast. Ideally, employers need to be offering more flexible working and allow women to work from home more."

Former prostitute Sheffield-born Charlie Daniels was one of the most successful madams in the North. She is a single mum and has turned her back on a life of vice for a writing career. Her autobiography, Priceless (Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99) comes out in paperback in May.

"We are in a strange place as far as equality and sexuality is concerned. We have the vote, but some women still don't get paid equal to men which is scandalous.

On the sex side of things, we are broad minded about women selling sex in lap-dancing bars and so put women in a position where they are objectifying themselves.

Unfortunately, one of the best ways for women to earn money these days is in the sex industry. There are still a limited number of women who are CEOs of major companies.

Women are still being forced into moulds. In Victorian times, the best a woman could hope for was a good husband, today it's to be a size zero model and parade around with a designer handbag."

Family lawyer Nina Banerjee, 35, is an associate solicitor at Denison Till in York. She specialises in family law.

Over the last century women from all over the world have seen a massive improvement in all spheres of their lives, from the home, the workplace as well as socially and politically. In this country, discrimination on grounds of gender was made unlawful by the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975.

Eradicating gender inequality is still a huge challenge, but we have made huge leaps forward. Law was one of the male dominated professions but now more women than men are training to be solicitors.

There are still challenges because women are still not that represented at the highest level, but again it's a move in the right direction. In family law, divorce cases have been altered radically following a groundbreaking judgement six or so years ago that ruled a women's contribution to family life and raising children should be regarded as equal in value to a man's role as a breadwinner."

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