A democracy is a polity where citizenship is understood to be as important as leadership, where the voluntary worker is as highly valued as the paid official. Paritocracy occurs when women and men become true partners in citizenship and leadership, sharing equal responsibilities in government and administration, parliament and political parties, the judiciary and the media, and over public revenue and expenditure.
Parity democracy (democratie paritaire) is an end in itself, to bring to bear on public affairs the intelligence and creativity, the courage and integrity, the kindness and compassion, and the enthusiasm and industry of both halves of humankind. It is also a means to a world where every girl, as well as every boy, from Afghanistan to ex-Zaire, receives adequate nutrition, secondary education, and the expectation of gainful employment and an independent income; to a world where women and girls enjoy freedom from violence and from the fear of violence; and a world where elderly women and widows, both old and young, enjoy their full human rights.
The Council for Parity Democracy was founded as Women & Men by Raymond Lloyd in Rome on 8 March 1980. In 1986 I began working out of London, in 1991 from Westminster, at 19 Mulready House, Herrick Street, London SW1P 4JL tel + 44 20 7834 1309 email shequality@gmail.com. Since 1997, the Council has published a monthly newsletter, The Parity Democrat (ISSN 1367-6946), uploaded from Issue No 1 of January 1997 onward. There are some 600 downloadable text files on this site, from 1 to 118 pages, representing 30 years of fulltime voluntary research. It may be easier to save large files to disk, before opening them. Narratives were in Times 11 font, but since 2009 have been in Verdana 10, a font created to be read more easily on computer monitors. Tabulations remain in Courier New 8 font, both narratives and tables in Microsoft Word (.doc) format. The whole site is currently 125 MB in size, and may be downloaded free with a website copier such as the 3.4 MB HTTrack-3.43-7, freeware downloadable from www.httrack.com. Indeed I would encourage friends and readers both to download it for its unique databases, and to update it every few weeks.
More recently, to illustrate narratives of work and travel, recounted in monthly issues of The Parity Democrat, I have uploaded on to a separate site, at http://shequality.spaces.live.com, some 5000 photos, in 200 albums, taken on journeys in England and to Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the USA and Wales, some 35 of the 221 states and territories I have visited in my lifetime to promote development, democracy and women's advancement. The present site incorporates some ten unique promotional databases, still in part to be uploaded, comprising

- 3000 major anniversaries of the democracies, annually, to 2020
- 1000 anniversaries of women's empowerment, annually, to 2010
- 6000 centenaries of distinguished women of history, annually, to 2060
- 3000 birthdays of distinguished living women from 180 countries
- 600 current heads of state and other women leaders in 220 countries
- 300 past heads of state and other women leaders
- 5000 able women proposed as heads of international bodies
- 500 flowers and wines named after distinguished women
- 500 coins and banknotes portraying women, and
- 2200 press questions on democracy and women's empowerment
The following pages show an evolution in my work over the past fifty years in both substance and form. My work for democracy began in 1956 when I flew to Vienna to volunteer for the International Red Cross relief operation on behalf of 200 000 Hungarians fleeing soviet communism. Subsequent work for Algerians taking refuge from European colonialism showed that the refugees were often better off materially than their host populations in Morocco and Tunisia. In 1961 therefore I began working for third world development, only to find in the 1970s that much modernization made women worse off, as men received machinery and credit while women were left with drudgery and subsistence. I then began the first international programme for rural women's advancement, financing it with the first world coin issue in monetary history. But by 1980 I realized that the UN system, through which I worked, had become as unaccountable as the 100 of its (then) 150 member governments which imprisoned, tortured or murdered their civilian opponents. At the age of 45 I resigned to work on my own, both for women's empowerment more generally, and for the restoration of democracy and political integrity to the international community.
I have long realized that the substance of such work would bring neither acknowledgement nor appreciation, so the past three decades have been those of finding ways in which I could get across my suggestions. This first entailed building up databases of Democracy, Distinguished Women, and Women Leaders (see Navigation Panel at left), on which I could make my Proposals. In 1980 these went first in circular letters to foreign ministers, UN agency heads, central banks and postal administrations, none of which letters have yet been posted. In 1987 I began work on some 128 individual letters to citizens and leaders in the democracies, the last 28 of which, and 20 earlier, are on the Letters page. From 1994 on I have spent more time on some 200 Conference Papers, outlining research proposals on democracy and women's advancement, for almost every major meeting I attended. And since 1998 I have persisted with (2200) Questions at these and other meetings, based on suggestions made earlier, particularly on how anniversaries and centenaries can be used to consolidate and enhance democracy and women's advancement, or promote lustration and reconciliation.
Most Frequent Downloads:
201 Major Anniversaries of the Democracies in 2010 http://www.shequality.org/D2010.doc
Major Anniversaries of the Democracies 2010-2020 http://www.shequality.org/D2010-2020.doc
http://www.shequality.org/1000 Questions on Democracy.doc
50- & 100-year Anniversaries of 188 Distinguished Women of History in 2010 http://www.shequality.org/2010.doc
50- & 100-year Anniversaries of 3000 Distinguished Women of History 2010-2036 http://www.shequality.org/2010-2036.doc
http://www.shequality.org/3000 Birthdays of Distinguished Living Women in 2010.doc
http://www.shequality.org/Celebrating Major American Anniversaries in 2009.doc
http://www.shequality.org/Celebrating Major British Anniversaries in 2010.doc
http://www.shequality.org/Celebrating Women Artists 2010.doc
Women Leaders throughout the World List 74 of 3 May 2005 with 586 names.doc
http://www.shequality.org/Women Heads for International Bodies Lists 90-1 Aug 82 - May 05.doc
Women on Banknotes - Queens, Heroines, Educators, Artists (Illustrated).doc
http://www.shequality.org/Reference Sources for Women's Birthdays & Centenaries 2009.doc
Uploads in past six months:
8 February The Parity Democrat http://www.shequality.org/No 159 March 2010.doc
http://www.shequality.org/5. Germany Travel Show 9 Feb 2010.doc
25 January Questions in Spain http://www.shequality.org/Madrid & Toledo 20-22 January 2010.doc
18 January Paper for meetings in Madrid & Toledo http://www.shequality.org/Celebrating Major Spaniish Anniversaries 2010-2012.doc
31 December The Parity Democrat http://www.shequality.org/No 158 February 2010.doc
26 December http://www.shequality.org/Celebrating Major British Anniversaries in 2010.doc
21 December The Parity Democrat http://www.shequality.org/No 157 January 2010.doc
http://www.shequality.org/Attacks on Women - Occasions for Remembrance 2010-2020.doc
http://www.shequality.org/Attacks on Travellers Anniversaries 2010-2014.doc
15 December Questions at the Climate Conference http://www.shequality.org/Copenhagen 7-18 December 2009.doc
6 December 75th Birthday Letter to Friends http://www.shequality.org/No 35 of 28 November 2009.doc
5 December http://www.shequality.org/UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 7-18 December 2009.doc
30 November http://www.shequality.org/Celebrating Women Artists 2010.doc
20 November The Parity Democrat http://www.shequality.org/No 156 December 2009.doc
18 November http://www.shequality.org/13th 100 Questions on Democracy.doc
8 November Paper for London Exhibition http://www.shequality.org/7 World Travel Market London 2009.doc
3 November Questions at the European Summit http://www.shequality.org/Brussels 29-30 October 2009.doc
27 October The Parity Democrat http://www.shequality.org/No 155 November 2009.doc
Paper for European Council http://www.shequality.org/38. 29-30 October 2009 Brussels.doc
7 October Questions at the World Bank http://www.shequality.org/Istanbul 3-7 October 2009.doc
27 September http://www.shequality.org/3000 Birthdays of Distinguished Living Women in 2010.doc
18 September Questions in Sweden http://www.shequality.org/Sweden 5-18 September 2009.doc
Links to friendly sites: http://www.guide2womenleaders.com www.shevolution.com