The truth is, women have never had it so good
After spending half my life as an equality activist, I am informed that gender parity will not be arriving for decades, nay centuries.
That was the refrain in the farewell lament played by the Equal Opportunities Commission this week. The state-funded EOC has been around for 30 years, so is this a confession of unhappy failure, an act of self-immolation? If so, we should demand a refund.
In reality, steady, irreversible progress has been made by British women and some of that is due to the EOC, no question. In our history there has been no better time to be a woman. The EOC knows this to be true yet publicly denies it when it should celebrate our advances.
We know why: it is a useful tactic, used by too many organisations seeking to preserve themselves, whether needed or not. The EOC is to be replaced by the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights, to combat all forms of discrimination including gender, race, disability, age and ethnicity. The factional equality bodies are mightily peeved and are fighting back by grabbing the worst place in the league table of oppression who is the most downtrodden of them all?
Women are, says the EOC, even though we have done vastly better than any other of the discrete groups protected by our laws. True, Britain is still largely owned and run by white men.
Women are slowed down by new blockades and old prejudices and a number of unexpected traumas arising for young girls and working couples. Those challenges will have to be faced but female success is undeniable in the Commons, in government, in business, on the media, in schools and colleges, the arts and the sciences.
Being a woman has only ever worked for me in my career; being an uppity Muslim Asian has raised barriers that shock me. Still, I have opportunities previous generations couldn't even allow themselves to imagine. And as a middle-class Asian professional woman I need less help to beat the odds than the disabled, mentally ill, uneducated men or the workless classes. A little honesty goes a long way.
Today's equality advocates must fight for people outside their particular cause, think ethically, step aside sometimes for others to catch up and talk up their achievements. If we, women in particular, act collectively for the rights of us all, we can transform society. I know it is easier to bewail our lot with old comrades, but those times, like the EOC, really have passed and a good thing, too.
