Take the government to court

I love the Fawcett Society. They are named after the lovely Millicent Fawcett and have been around since 1866. They are still keeping up the struggle for equal pay for equal work, still a long way from reality, 40 years after the passing of the Equal Pay Act (which means that women earn at best about a fifth less than men and if you take into account lifetime loss of earnings for child rearing, a great deal less). They are excellent at telling it like it is about so called lap dancing clubs and have cearly helped lots of people to persuade their local councils to adopt the change in licensing laws which will end the ridiculous practice of licensing lap dancing clubs and the like under the same rules as a cafe (as have their sister organisation Object, also wonderful campaigning network tackling the whole gamut of the so-called 'sex' industry - or rape, harassment and sexual abuse industry as it could more truthfully be known).

And they have put the Equality and Human Rights Commission to shame, by doing the only responsible thing in the face of imminent budget changes which will result in more hardship, fewer opportunities, lower paid jobs and worse services, disproportionately for women - they are taking the government to court.

Someone really should be taking the Condems to court for just generally doing things which are likely to hurt poor people more than rich people. But we don't have laws against being unfair to poor people. And we do have laws requiring public bodies not to discriminate against women (we also have ones requiring them not to discriminate against disabled people, or people on grounds of their sexuality, hooray).

Last time I looked (about 5 minutes ago) the government hadn't yet been put out to tender and sold to the consultant with the best score on Best Value Performance Indicators, so I am pretty sure that it is still a public body at the moment. So this rule, known enticeingly as the Gender Equality Duty, still applies. And instead of the body legally constituted to hold organisations to account for adherence to equalities and human rights legislation, paid for with public money, it has been left to the Fawcett Society, a charity, funded almost entirely by individual donations and trusts, to tell the government that they can't do this without at least considering how this will affect equality between men and women.

Theresa May, Home Secretary and expert of the apparent 180degree turn illusion, aka Minister for Equalities, has made the Chancellor aware of this responsibilities to avoid discrimination of all kinds, including discrimination against gay people, disabled people and others under the Equalities Act 2010, in a clear letter which you can have a look at by clicking on that link. In other words: THEY CAN'T EVER SAY THEY WEREN'T WARNED, by their own Home Secretary.

So, support the Fawcett Society in their work, kindly helping to keep the government from breaking the law. If you join, not only will you have the pleasure of knowing that your money is helping to sue Cam'n'Clegg'n'co (and honestly, wouldn't that be a pleasure?). You will get a t-shirt with "This is what a feminist looks like" running attractively across your chest.

I have been photographed wearing this in a range of appropriate poses: whilst knitting aside a raging waterfall in Northumberland (the photographer lost his nerve there, so you will just have to believe me); as a protective outer layer when baking almond slices (of more anon), knitting in an ancient beech forest (see left), attempting to cook a three course meal for a family of 12 in a cliff top campsite in Wales, as half a pyjama. Frankly it could do with better tailoring - I didn't win many sartorial points as you can see, so there is a cliche sadly supported - but the political point is, I hope, clear. Feminists may bake, (or not), knit (or not), skip through meadows (or not), dress up (or down), rear or care for children and older people (or not) and we all work (whether paid or unpaid). Just like everyone else. Except for the important detail that we don't want (nit pickers that we are) to be treated as less important, less able, less deserving of decent lives, just because we are females. That's it. Nothing threatening there.

Any woman who doesn't want to call herself one out loud, that's a choice. Any woman who wants to slam feminism can, in order, give back: equal pay, protection under the law from violence, child benefit, right to vote, right to work, right to remain in work after marriage, right to own property, right to have own bank account, right to privacy and bodily integrity. Give 'em all back, if you have nothing but bad things to say about feminists - most of these didn't exist 50 years ago, lots didn't exist 20 years ago (including the right to say no to sex within marriage) and don't think for a minute that powerful political men just woke up one morning and said "let's do something nice for ladies today". Feminists organised and got busy and wrote letters and took to the streets and raised money to pay for legal challenges and thus, equal rights got a bit closer.

In reality, lots of the apparent gains are still mere mirages or fuzzy images at best, which is why we still need the Fawcett Society.

To those dear friends who think that we have gender equality and I am just being old fashioned - I must have missed the meeting where it was announced that the gender pay gap had closed, that there was no glass ceiling any more, that women don't get raped and beaten just for being women any more, that degrading treatment of women can no longer be packaged up and sold as harmless fun in magazines, websites or clubs for men any more. Come to think of it, I must have also missed the meeting where it was announced that men were no longer also being denied certain opportunities, just because they are men, or coerced into joining the armed forces and becoming cannon fodder, just because they were men without other job opportunities, any more. Gender equality is good for us all and it doesn't deny us the opportunity to be women and men in the ways we want to be, it just stops us from being discriminated against for it. Simple as.

Donate and help them sue the government, we need this now more than ever...