making a list. checking it a couple of times.

I had a discussion on Facebook yesterday about the BBC's "Faces of 2011 - the women" article. Their list consists of one singer, one athlete, three politicians - one who is the list by dint of having been shot - two sexual assault victims, two brides, one bridesmaid, one woman who went on a date and a female panda.

So for the entire month of November, the only woman who did anything of note was a marine who went on a date with Justin Timberlake and in April Pippa Middleton wore a dress that made her bum look nice. December didn't manage a single human woman at all.

Wow.

So I proposed a new list. Michele Bachmann (even though I hate her) should probably stay, and Dilma Rousseff definitely. Personally I don't think sports and entertainment count as news, but Adele and Li Na both made a major impact on their respective fields so let's keep them too.

I'm still debating with myself whether or not Gabrielle Giffords, Nafissatou Diallo and/or Eman al-Obeidi should stay. Certainly Gifford's shotting and recovery was newsworthy. Diallo and al-Obeidi showed great courage in stepping forward publically to speak about what was done to them. But I'm really uncomfortable with the idea that a full quarter of a list of the most notable women of the year are famous for having been the victims of violence. So I dunno yet. I'm still thinking about it.

Now the people I would definitely add;

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the first woman Prime Minister of Denmark.
Anna Grodzka, the first transgendered MP in European history.
Angela Zhang, who at 17 developed a particle to deliver chemo drugs directly to a cancer site.
The thousands of women in Egypt who marched against the military in Cairo.

Who else? Who would you add?