By the time the Lord made woman, he was into his sixth day of working overtime.

An angel appeared and said, "Why are you spending so much time on this one?"

The Lord answered: "Have you seen my spec sheet on her....? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic, have over 200 movable parts, all replaceable and able to run on diet coke and leftovers, have a lap that can hold four children at one time, have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart - and she will do everything with only two hands."

I don’t fit in. Never have. Maybe never will. And while the "outside" can often be lonely place, there’s also lots to be relished about being a rebel.

It means I can still don purple suede boots, black lace stockings, short skirts, and the jean jacket I embroidered and wore with such pride when I was 13 (it doesn’t matter that it’s literally falling apart at the seams now).

Guest blog post by Maggie McNeill, sex work advocate.

Susan notes: Guest blogger McNeill (otherwise known as The Honest Courtesan), and I disagree on many subjects. However, we are united in the belief that there is no shame in freely choosing to express one’s sexuality in the manner one wishes, and that includes getting paid for it, if that is one’s choice....

Guest blog post by business owner Dianne Dixon.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report 2011, four of the top five nations that have taken significant steps toward achieving gender parity are Nordic. They are: Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden; Ireland rounds out the quintet.

The report was based on five years of data from 135 countries; it measured gender gap ratios in the following major categories: