Sex Equality Means Just That,

 No Ifs No Buts

By Les May

IT’S A WEEK since, in giving a ruling brought by women attempting to have the pension age for them restored to 60, two judges of the High Court, Lord Justice Irwin and Mrs Justice Whipple, referred to ‘historic direct discrimination against men’.

Yet in the past seven days I have come across numerous extracts from newspaper columns and long ‘letters to the editor’ written by women continuing to complain that the pension age for them has been raised and trying to suggest that in some way this is ‘unfair’.

But it is also true that I have not seen any columns or letters written by men drawing attention to the fact that the pension rules prior to 2018 did amount to discrimination against men and that the judges also ruled ‘this legislation does not treat women less favourably than men in law‘.  Not only did women receive their pension earlier, but they were, and still are, likely to receive the pension for longer as on average women tend to outlive men.

Too many women claim that any comment by men about the way they are treated should be dismissed as ‘backlash’ or ‘mansplaining’.  Too many men seem to be unwilling to be assert that they too should be treated equally. I’m not one of them.  Are you?

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