Our public life: where have all the women gone?

I asked my mother – born in 1908 – why there were so few women in public life and she replied: ‘because they spend so much time combing their hair and looking in mirrors.’ I asked my father, a doctor – born in 1889 – and he replied: ‘because they have a space in their...

Intelligence and jobs

I slept late on Sunday morning and woke to hear a jokey discussion on the radio about socialism and capitalism, which were terms I was brought up with, but whose meaning has changed over the decades. So that when Ed Milliband talks about democratic socialism the young...

Myths of modern women: 1

What drove me to feminism fifty years ago was the myth that men were the breadwinners and women kept house and looked pretty. Male work colleague to me: You mustn’t take promotion. It’s taking the bread out of a working man’s mouth. Female Tax inspector to me: But...