Is it me?

Or is it everyone else?

Chelsea 1  Man U 0!!

Sam Kerr scored the goal and once again gave Chelsea the cup in the WOMEN'S F A CUP FINAL.  My Dad , who died fifty years ago and is buried in Lincolnshire - in Washingborough Churchyard- (the village where I grew up),  would be 'turning in his grave' at this stunning piece of News.

Whan I was a child in the nineteen thirties and forties my Dad was Secretary of the Washingborough Football Club and faithfully followed them about to their Saturday matches.   Home games were played on the football pitch at the top of Church Hill, and the field was sacrosanct.**  Kept in perfect condition, the pitch for home games would invite a small audience almost if not exclusively male.   Football was a 'man's game'.   Football for girls?   Rubbish - boys play football, girls play hockey and netball.   Firm divisions between the sexes in those days.   Well,  well done to the Ladies I say (and so say all of us).

So how far have we come ladies in the last ninety years?  Let's look at a few issues:

Marriage and Divorce.  I believe marriage is almost on its way out as couples who are married and those who choose not to marry but still have a nuclear family (albeit often only a temporary one as Dads do tend to move around a bit (up here at any rate) are almost equal in their popularity.

Abortion.   Babies born 'out of wedlock' is a term rarely used these days - in fact said 'babies' often turn up as bridesmaids at Mum and Dad's wedding years hence.   In my young days such babies were often brought up thinking Granny was Mum to save embarrassment and 'disgrace' (for the female not the male!) -the term 'swept under the carpet' was a term often used).

Paternal rights.  This is almost a bit of a laugh these days.   How many Patriarchs are there about these days - was your father Head of the family?   My Dad might have thought he was - he was certainly the Breadwinner but handed his wage packet over to my Mother once he had extracted his 'pocket money'.   Mother definitely kept the family together by being in charge of the purse strings.  Now that both parents usually work (they have to to pay the bills) only rarely is this idea of Head of the Family thought about.

Now to the more mundane things.   It is difficult for me to centre on any things which I think have improved my lot.  In the mixture that was called Infant School boys sat at one side of the room and girls at the other; at playtime girls played in one playground, usually huddled in friendship groups and playing skipping or tig or just chatting.   Boys kicked a ball about and maybe had a bit of cricket thrown in  in Summer.   Sometimes the boys had fights - the cane was usually in evidence on such occasions.

 Our Senior Schools were segregated so through puberty, unless we had brothers or sisters, anything we learned was by hearsay ("my mum and dad definitely never did that!").

Result - almost always innocence at 14.  No mobiles, no porn, no TV churning out 'near to the knuckle' programmes.

Wolf whistles, bottom pinches and the like were everywhere - we ignored them largely.  In fact - I hardly dare say it - we began to be almost flattered by such things as we moved into teenage years.

Of course women have made major strides in such things as job equality, plenty of entrepreneurs are women; women have risen through the ranks in the Church; there are enough women M.P's in Parliament to make protests unnecessary.   I am sure I have missed some things out but if so I am sure some of you will point them out.  Margaret Thatcher, Indira Ghandi, Mary Robinson, Nicola Sturgeon - pop into my mind (not to mention Liz Truss!!)

All I can say as I reach my final years is that when I see woman in the middle east flitting about the streets in their Burkhas and when I see programmes about tribes in places like The Sahara and other parts of Africa where fgm is obligatory and read of girls in Afghanistan deprived of basic education because of their sex, I know conditions for women here are good.   Many people will say we still have a long way to go.   But seeing places deep in the Himalayas on recent Michael Palin programmes (I have seen them all before but they are enthralling and I never tire of them)where huge festivals are held and there isn't a woman in sight, I would say the world has a huge way to go.   But we can't tackle the whole world - mighty oaks from little acorns grow.  Any ideas on the subject anyone?

**It is now a Housing Estate.