My View - Wednesday February 7th 2018 

This month, it's a 100 years since women were given the right to vote in the UK.  Not all women, just those over 30 who lived in a house or were married to a man who lived in a house. So, not poor, basically. It took another 10 years before things were evened up and we could put our cross in the box, age 21, like men. I wonder what suffragette and founder of the Women's Social Political Union, Emmeline Pankhurst, would make of the state of the world now?    

I suspect she would be disappointed that it took us so long to get cracking with the #MeToo movement and would have more than a passing opinion about equal pay. In terms of using her vote, I think she would be striding ruffle-high into to Number Ten, to take matters into her own hands. Trump would be sent trembling back to his tower.  

I'm ashamed to say that I was a bit late to feminism. As a teenager, a teensy bit of me believed Women's Rights groups were created by lesbians, for lesbians, for social opportunities as much as political activism. A go-to community for the fairer sex to congregate without judgement, in dungarees, crafting call-to-action placards from disused dressing table chairs.    

But the penny dropped when I applied for a job in commercial radio and, after the interview, I received a text from my would-be boss which simply said 'nice backside' (that's the tame version). But this job was a leg up I needed, so a day later, I conveniently forgot all about the message and eagerly agreed to a minimum wage, zero hours contract making tea and boosting the ego of whichever presenter happened to be sat on the other side of the glass.  

It's only now, if I'm honest, that I look back on that scenario with the same fury as another interview I attended where the man asked me what my father did for a living. When I told him that he had retired and brazenly enquired why that mattered, he suggested I get a hair cut. I mean, that's just bonkers, isn't it? Why didn't I really take him to task or tell his boss? Oh yeah, because I wanted the job and his boss was a man too, so I didn't want to rock the boat.   

I cringe at my younger attitude towards women's issues and feel that in some way I got what I deserved. I still don't stick my neck on the line when it comes to speaking up about inequality in the workplace though. I'm more words than deeds. But I do vote and I am genuinely grateful for all the sacrifice, suffering, heartache and hunger strikes endured by those braver souls. They've made it possible for me to believe that if I choose, I can be a rebel rather than a slave.