The first tiny chink? Perhaps.

For as long as anyone can remember women in politics have been subject to a certain kind of scrutiny that has not been made of their male colleagues. You know the sort of thing I mean, the way we dress, the way we do our hair, the critique of our makeup, and that is the minor stuff. Then they talk about having children, being married and so on - damned if you have experienced either and damned if you haven't. Basically anything but that which is relevant to the politics of the person is discussed at length and printed. This is something that rather unsurprisingly irks women, and we've kind of had enough of the imbalanced way.

I was listening to Woman's Hour on BBC R4 on Monday, and they had a guest editor being interviewed in depth, none other than Kim Cattrall. It was a lovely frank interview that I enjoyed very much, but the thing that stood out in my mind was when she spoke about ageing, and not having children. Her frustration at the judgemental position of the media and the negativity surrounding whatever choice the woman makes was clear for the listeners. However I digress, but felt it worth mentioning as it reinforces the point.

I didn't sleep to well, I've a big event, a life changing one at that, ahead of me this afternoon. At such times try as we may, sleep will evade us. No matter as I did a little surfing whilst sipping my cocoa and came across this little magazine article on the BBC entitled Jeremy Corbyn's Speech, Deconstructed (Link). What a surprise lay in wait a short way into the article. I got the distinct impression of glossing over most of the speech as that wasn't important. No what I got loud and clear from the article was the dissection of Jeremy Corbyn's style, his grooming and clothing choice. The writer says,

"Many people might be annoyed at any politician's dress sense being the subject of discussion - rather than their policies "

then proceeds to devote a good chunk of the piece to being annoying for many, but not for me.

One of the core objectives of the new non-partisan political party, the Womens Equality Party of which I am proud to be a Founding Member is to seek equal treatment of women by and in the media. I can't recollect reading an article on a man in politics that is giving as much space to how he looks, dresses, and acts as it has to what and how he says it. Equal treatment seems to be on the agenda at last and bravo to Jon Kelly.