“Can we please have fewer women in politics? Let’s be honest. After the feminist experiment, it has become clear that women are, frankly, not very good at big issues.
“I’m not saying that there is no place at all for women in public life. But they should be pretty, young, say nothing and stand a few demure inches to one side of their husbands.
“Isn’t it horrible when you get some older, and dumpier women appearing on telly as ministers, or opposition spokeswomen?”
When Jackie Ashley wrote this in her Guardian column on 31/3/08 she was being sarcastic.
Her article argued that female politicians were subject to greater criticism than their male counterparts, and in areas, such as what clothes they wore, that would never be addressed to male ministers.
She could not have hoped for a better example of her criticisms than Fergus Shanahan’s column the following day in the Sun.
“[Harriet] Harman, a boot-faced Labour busybody in no danger of being called darling herself, is the Women and Equalities Minister.”
Shanahan was giving his two-penneth worth on the ‘outrageous’ EU directive, followed up by Harman, that would stamp out sexual harassment of women working in pubs.
Could Shanahan have been working on Mrs Marr’s behalf to support her argument, I think we should be told??
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.