Able - check back in time. For the main part women, except in the upper strata of any society, would work as hard as the men, in the fields, in industry, in service. My grandmother, from the age of ten worked part of the day in the mills, went to school for part of the day. Women's work in the home was done without the benefit of machines - hard, backbreaking work it was too. Have you have tried doing a week's washing by hand, in the sink? I have - takes most of the day to do it properly. At the same time there were generally children to take care of in the days before birth control became available.

During both World Wars women took over and did the jobs that were left when the men went off to fight - my mother worked in a munitions factory in London - not the safest place in the world given the Nazi propensity for bombing the hell out of that sort of target in the Capital.

These days it's a lucky woman who can stay home full time and just be a homemaker. Most families are unable to manage without that second wage coming in and the wife has no choice but to work. If she's lucky she'll have a partner who will help with the household chores and looking after the children - I can think, personally of at least three families I know where that doesn't happen - the man seems to have your attitude - that he's doing a full time job already and shouldn't have to do anything else when he gets home. Conversely, I know of a number of households where the burden is shared.

I had both a father, and later a husband, who had the opinion that they were the final decision maker because they were male and that I should have to bow to their wishes in all matters. Today I am lucky to be married to a man who respects me for who I am and does not feel the need to direct me in the way that he thinks is right.

Up until relatively recently it was very difficult for women to get jobs in the fire service in particular and other male preserves. I think most of us can think of areas which were seen as 'men only'. At the same time some occupations were seen as 'women's work' and very few men ever got into those, or wanted to. Nowadays that division has come down to a degree, but there are still very few women in the really high ranks of the armed forces or even politics and there are still, it seems, too may men who believe that our place is in the home, or working in jobs where we can't exert very much influence.

In a lot of what were previously male dominated occupations there are still men who resent the influx of women into what they see as their territory and who can make it difficult for any woman with the temerity to trespass there to actually do the job. If you have ever worked in an office where a woman has made it to upper management you will likely be aware of the comments from lower placed men as to how she got the job and her sexual preferences, or what life must be like for her poor husband. A man can be assertive, a woman is just bossy and 'it's probably her time of the month'. I've heard all of that in my time.

There are still countries in the world where women cannot receive an education whilst men can and where they are banned from working. I can't think of any country where the reverse is the case. Male domination has been the norm for so many years – read the Bible – that, if there is now a reaction by women it is hardly surprising.

The media's tendency to dumb down men I find extremely distasteful, in much the same as the fifties adds portraying a woman as the little wifey with no thought in her head other than to keep the home sparkling and put a hot meal on the table for the Man Of The House. Neither is a true depiction of the sex and it should be borne in mind that there is always a need by the media to pander to those that they see as having the power of the purse and right now that is women.

Maybe one day there will be an enlightened world where someone's gender does not dictate what they can and cannot do. I doubt that we will live to see it but, at least we can try and do our own little bit to dispel the myths around the battle of the sexes by our own example.