TAMARA TALKS: To ambitious young women everywhere, who run the world? Girls

They just wanna'¦girls just wanna have fun'¦
Female medics from South East England delivered healthcare to those in remote villages across Kenya, East Africa.

Credit: Cpl Jamie Peters.Female medics from South East England delivered healthcare to those in remote villages across Kenya, East Africa.

Credit: Cpl Jamie Peters.
Female medics from South East England delivered healthcare to those in remote villages across Kenya, East Africa. Credit: Cpl Jamie Peters.

Yes. Yes we do. But we also want to do lots of other things too and, almost 100 years after being given the right to vote in the UK, we are.

So thank you Cyndi Lauper, for giving women an uplifting feelgood song that will probably be around for decades to come, but I’m going to need some new lyrics to go with that stick-in-your-head tune.

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Of the six main political parties in the UK, women are currently in charge of four (or co-in charge in the case of the Green Party). In an environment that’s always been so male-orientated, this is truly inspirational.

In that group is Theresa May, only the second female prime minister since 1721. That’s right. Of the 75 prime ministers the UK has had, only two have been female. Shockingly, the USA has never had a female president – but that could be about to change now Hillary Clinton is in the running to be elected.

Women are doing more things than ever before, including serving in the armed forces. Females make up almost 12 per cent of the navy and about nine per cent of the British army. And what’s more, in July David Cameron lifted the ban on women serving on the front line.

We have so many amazing female scientists, athletes, goodwill ambassadors, businesswomen... the list is endless.

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But with issues like the gender pay gap still looming – which by the way, isn’t due to close until 2069 – it can feel like women are still not seen as equal to men.

I know lots of young ladies (me included) wonder how they will have a good career and/or do great things AND get married, buy a house, and start a family, all within a desired amount of time. Many of us come out of school, go to college then university, and then might have to do a masters degree or even work experience.

Before you know it you’re in your mid-20s before you get your first proper job in your desired profession, if you’re lucky. So what happens if you’re ready to start a family at the same time?

I don’t know how women juggle both a career and children, but they do – and I admire them. So if you’re in a similar position to me, all you need to know is that it can be done, and that, like all the great female role models, you can do anything if you put your mind to it.

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There’s also no rush to do it all so quickly. No matter what you do a lot of success comes later in life for men and women (although the former don’t have the biological clock nagging away at the back of their minds).

You can’t be prime minister at 30, can you?

n Twenty-three-year-old Tamara is a journalist at The News. Read her views on life as a modern woman in an ever-changing world every week.