We don’t disagree about much in our
house. We share many of the same views on life, the universe and everything. We
have a great division of labour. J goes out to work every day, and I’m happy to
shop, cook, do the washing, make the beds, cleaning, gardening, look after her goats
and turn the lights and hair straighteners off behind her. However, the one
thing we do have a different view over, is the dishwasher. I cannot see the point
of it, and considering there is only two of us in the house, it seems an unnecessary
waste of energy. J disagrees and sees it as a vital bit of kitchen equipment.
However, and happily from her
point of view, J is in great company. Josephine Cochran was born on the 8th March 1839, in Chicago, and is famous for inventing the first commercially successful
automatic dishwater. And in strange twist of ‘place based’ thinking, she did so
in her own garden shed. She was a great inventor and was granted a patent for
her dishwasher in 1886, aged just 47 years old. Somewhat amusingly, the men she
subsequently employed to help improve her dishwasher, all wanted to change her original
design. The resulting ‘new’ dishwashers they built simply didn’t work.
As well as dishwasher inventors,
the 8th March date is significant in other ways too. As 2020 is a
Leap Year, this year it’s the 68th day of the year (and yes there
are only 298 days left until the end of the year). And it doesn’t fall on a
Sunday very often. In the 11 years I have been writing my blog it has only occurred
in 2015 and then again, this year. Between now and 2050, it will only happen again
in 2026, 2037, 2043 and 2048. For most folk this information probably doesn’t keep
them up at night. However, for someone who writes a blog every Sunday, and who likes
to reflect the zeitgeist, it’s a bit of a pain. More of which later.
Since 1911, the 8th March has been celebrated as International Women’s Day (#IWD) Back then, it attracted
some one million people. These days, many millions more are involved in celebrating
the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Each year the
celebration focuses on a theme. This year the theme is gender equality, and an
equal world is an enabled world. The ask is for everyone to collectively, actively
and consistently challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve
situations and celebrate women’s achievements. This year there is a brilliant
symbolic way for folk to demonstrate their support. People can post their #IWD2020
message with their ‘hands out’ #EachforEqual pose. It’s brilliantly simple, and
outstandingly powerful.
Interestingly there is not an equal
gender split in the world’s population. Have a look at this fascinating live population site. As you will be able to see, there are marginally more men in the
world than women. But it is the other statistics on the site I found almost memorising.
The births, the deaths and the causes of death are really challenging. Each number
change means that someone somewhere is either rejoicing or mourning a major change
in their life. For me, at least, it was a sobering read.
For regular readers of this
blog, you might recall that this time last year, my Sunday blog focused on pancakes,
nurse leadership and women who had been there for me throughout my life. I
borrowed the idea from that inspirational ‘running lady’ @KathEvens2 (a children’s
nurse) who wrote, in support of her #IWD, a blog about some of the women who
had inspired and supported her during her life. Further back, some 10 years ago,
my Sunday blog (7th March) didn’t mention #IWD at all, but I did
talk about Sarah Bell, another children’s nurse. She was in the news five years
earlier as a campaigner for hunting. Her photo appeared on a poster showing her
in full hunting gear with the caption ‘now they hate her’ whereas on the other
side of the poster, she appeared wearing her nurses uniform with the caption ‘and
now they love her’. 15 years on and the hunting ban remains in force, but I don’t
know if Sarah Bell is still a children’s nurse. I hope she is.
In the UK, there are 51,783
children’s nurses currently on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register.
Many of these nurses will be affiliate members of the Royal College of Paediatrics
and Child Health (RCPCH). Although primarily an organisation for doctors, the enlightened
folk at RCPCH recognise and acknowledge that a multi-professional approach is required
in order to provide high quality and comprehensive children’s health and
wellbeing services.
And such services are desperately
needed. Last week the RCPCH published their State of Child Health 2020 report.
I have to say, it makes for depressing reading. The report notes that many of
the recognised measures of children’s health and wellbeing have either stalled
or are in reverse. Like the Marmot Review published two weeks previously, the
RCPCH report notes that health outcomes are worse for those children who live
in deprived areas. Shockingly, some 4.1 million children are now living in
poverty in the UK. Whilst there are some positive signs, (teenage pregnancies have fallen;
childhood obesity has risen up the policy ladder; and good progress has made in
the treatment of conditions such as diabetes), the warnings published in the Lancet
last year of the lack of progress being made since the State of Child Health
report of 2017 have not been heeded.
If you haven’t already read the
report, have a look here. However, like the population website, it does make for
a very sobering and sad read. Whilst the report makes a number of well-presented
recommendations, many of which look to the government for funding restoration
and policy change, there are some useful ideas for practitioners as well: make
every contact count, and make child health a joyful place to work, were two
that caught my eye.
And finally, something else that
caught my eye about today. It’s also International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day (IWCBD). This delightful idea, has since 2014, brought together women who
brew beer across the world, to brew a craft beer using the same recipe. Brewing
is still a male dominated industry, although there are plenty of great women
brewers around. Unite is the name of the shared beer, go online and see where
your local brewery is and how to get some. I will be doing so, and raising a
glass to J, the wonderful woman in my life.
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