Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking at the IWD event on Saturday at the Old Market - lots of people there, and had a very warm reception.

Also very honoured indeed to have been included in the Independent on Sunday's "100 Women who changed the World" - though still got a bit of work to do on that one!

But while International Women's Day is rightly about the celebration of what we've achieved so far, it's clear that so much still remains to be done. Women hold just 11% of FTSE 100 directorships and less than 20% of the positions in Parliament.

According to a recent report, at the current rate of progress, it will take 200 years for women to be equally represented at Westminster - only slightly shorter than the time it would apparently take a snail to crawl the entire length of the Great Wall of China(212 years).

Today is therefore a fitting day for the Green Party to launch its manifesto for women.

We support the introduction of quotas to ensure that boards of major companies are at least 40% female, based on the model already successfully implemented in Norway, and currently being considered in France.

We would insist that all large and medium-size companies carry out equal pay audits and redress inequalities uncovered; and that the law be changed to make joint suits for equal pay cases simpler.

We also propose better provisions for maternity and paternity leave, with a focus on paid paternity, to ensure that responsibilities are shared more equally in a way that benefits both parents.

I am proud to be a part of the only political party in Britain that is explicitly committed to equality for everyone, and as part of International Women's Week, I'm delighted to be appearing on Question Time this Thursday - in front of an all-woman audience.