I am now 67 and I have done my time as a worker. I am a mother of children in their 30s and one 40 year old as well as a youngster of 25. By theolder ones' ages, I was a full-time working mother living in London with no family support as I had come to London in my 30s. The marriage suffered and divorce came after 20 years of marriage and 6 years in London so I was then a single working mother. How did I survive? How did the children go? I can honestly say I have no idea how I did it. In my view the children suffered from lack of family and friends contact. But they are now adults and they live their own lives and work out their own solutions. This blog is about feminism and here are my views from the viewpoint of the information above. I am very disappointed and surprised at the way women of today seem to be no different to the women of my early years. There still seemed to be, in the workplace where I was at least, a lack of self-confidence in the women when they discussed work with their male colleagues. The young women of my working acquaintance still seemed to talk with men as though they, the women, were privileged to be where they were in the working pecking order rather than they were there by right. Because of this they did not often challenge the status quo of male promotion to higher ranks that occurred regularly. To those of you who are women and who are in your 30's and who work in a male-dominated environment I ask these question. Why do you think this is? Do you challenge the way men think of themselves as superior to women or do you just accept it as part of your working life and think that it is of no consequence because you have made it up the ladder on a par with the men? I look forward to hearing from you. Mary Symons

An email comes round with best pictures of the decade. The pictures depict war, environmental destruction and, incongruously, celebrities. But the most stark impression from these pictures is the general absence of women. The men fight, die and celebrate football. In the few pictures of women, they collect water, pose and grieve./Headlines in the Guardian, Child Sex Trafficking on the rise. An abused child describes how she kept hoping that one of her abusers would rescue her rather than abuse her. As women, we are taught to stand on the sidelines and watch. Watch our brother play rugby, watch men play football, watch men make decisions on our future in government and in business. They also watch other women focus on their appearance, pretty dresses, worrying about boyfriends and relationships. While we have come so far over the past 50 years with women in the business world now, in government, playing a role in making the wheels of capitalism turn rather than at home raising kids, it seems like we are still on the sidelines watching. It's just that our vantage point is a bit closer to the action. How do we encourage women to get more engaged, to take ownership of their future, of our present. Feminists over a century have fought really really hard to get us to where we are today. We are in a position now where we can take control. It is there for us. British society accepts women as leaders, as agents of change. Sure we need to work out the childcare issue, but the battle for the minds is over. But we hesitate. We step back. We let men jump into the limelight. Why? Because they want it so much more than we do. Am I bovvered? It is stressful, being at the top, taking charge, taking the flak when things go wrong. It takes a special kind of person to stand up and at the moment they are mainly men. So why is this? How are we raising girls differently so that they do not hunger after responsibility and status like men seem to? Is this a biological issue? Testosterone? It seems to me that this last hurdle needs to be tackled urgently, otherwise we may slip back into the supporting role again. Remember that equality for women is historically a very recent phenomenon and distinctly Western. We need to be vigilant to keep our status in place. So let's go for it. Find some cahones and push at that final frontier. Starting with football.