sexism

The Girl Guides once taught young women to cope away from civilisation with camping trips and nature skills.

Now, they are more concerned with helping them face the challenges of modern life.

The youth group yesterday took its first step into politics, demanding school lessons in body confidence and equal numbers of men and women in Parliament.

It is worth saying again: Prejudice against women fulfilling their professional promise is one of the most pernicious discriminations still tolerated in the UK.

When Anna Margareth Abdallah entered the Tanzanian parliament in 1975, she was one of only five female MPs. Today, she is one of 126 – more than a third of the total – and the first woman to chair the standing committee on defence and security.

Pioneers may be picturesque figures, but they are often rather lonely ones. Or so said Nancy Astor, who certainly should have known: as the first female MP to take a seat in the House of Commons, Samantha Cameron's step great-grandmother surely expected to meet her share of resistance.

New research has found negative media coverage of former PM, Julia Gillard, is discouraging women from pursuing their political aspirations.

The survey, conducted by the YWCA and University of Adelaide, found 80 per cent of female respondents over the age of 31 who wanted to enter politics were less likely to do so, because they perceived the media’s treatment of Gillard as negative.

The MPs making obscene gestures at Sarah Champion and other women in the Commons are the backbench nonentities.