Janet Street-Porter: When these brain-dead bimbos finally grow up, they'll realise we need the F-word (that's feminism) more than ever

Let’s talk about the F-word. Many young women today regard feminism as a dirty word, a cause they say has no relevance to their own lives.



To my generation, that’s a real cause for concern — whatever happened to the notion of sisterhood?

In a recession, women ought to be united, looking out for each other, being supportive — especially when huge numbers of us are being laid off, ordered to work fewer hours and having our benefits cut.



Keeping up: The world of the Kardashians focuses to an unhealthy degree on the external packaging we should strive for in order to attract the opposite sex and be successful at work

Worse, a distressing number of modern girls think you get on in life by looking good, not because of what’s between your ears — celebrity culture promotes the notion that it’s perfectly acceptable to judge other females on first impressions.

The world of The Only Way Is Essex and the Kardashians, of fake tans, Rihanna, Tamara Ecclestone and Katie Price focuses to an unhealthy degree on the external packaging we should strive for in order to attract the opposite sex and be successful at work.

These brain-dead creeps tottering around in crippling shoes and body-con frocks, with frozen faces, a mane of hair extensions, false nails and thick eyelashes should be thanking my generation for what we achieved, not treating us as embarrassing pariahs!

The only way is embarrassing: These brain-dead creeps tottering around in crippling shoes and body-con frocks should be thanking my generation for what we achieved, not treating us as embarrassing pariahs, says Janet

Back in the Sixties, we campaigned for equal pay, better childcare and our rightful place in the boardrooms of Britain. With the long-awaited Labour victory in 1997, more women than ever took their places in the Commons — and posed for that (fateful, as it turned out) Blair’s Babes picture with Tony, who looked like the cat who got the cream.

Since that day, when we thought we stood at the beginning of a new era (ha ha), feminism has gradually waned in popularity, along with the number of women in power.

Which is why I want to send out this message to young women — feminism is nothing to be ashamed of. We still have so much to fight for.

Don’t expect politicians to be supportive — they’ve turned out to be our worst enemies.

In spite of David Cameron’s pleas that he ‘understands’ women, an increasing number of female voters are unimpressed — they’ve seen his government cut legal aid and child benefit.

Unhappy: Cameron has admitted his wife Sam is unhappy with his failure to promote women

Where’s free childcare? Why isn’t there a quota to get women fairly represented in the boardrooms of the top UK companies — bizarre when we wield the most purchasing power?

Cameron has admitted his wife Sam is unhappy with his failure to promote women (fewer of us than ever in the Cabinet), but he needs to keep his fellow MPs happy, and rank-and-file Tories are not exactly female-friendly.

As for the Lib Dems, embarrassing revelations about Lord Rennard and alleged sexual harassment of young female party workers reinforce the message that Westminster is a boys’ club.

Politics, in spite of Blair’s Babes, remains a macho environment — and a recent report entitled Sex And Power 2013: Who Runs Britain? reckons the UK has fallen 37 places internationally since 2001 to joint 60th in the world when it comes to women at the top in public life — the law, the city, the civil service, parliament and education.

Only one in five MPs is female.



That’s why feminism is still relevant today — we haven’t even won round one of the battle for true equality.

New research indicates that today’s young women think of themselves as ‘empowered individuals’, who claim they rarely encounter discrimination at work and are comfortable in their relationships with the opposite sex.



Many say feminist is a term that applies to lesbians and women who hate men.

I want to weep — are these women living in dreamland, brainwashed into thinking all’s right in the world, when the reality is so different?



They are smug and self-satisfied, when they should be taking a long, hard look at the realities of life in modern Britain.

Fact: for older women, life has just got much tougher. Nearly 30,000 of us (three times the number of men) have to continue working in our 60s because of the rise in the pension age. Losing out on a pension we spent all their lives paying for, as well as paying tax on our wages. Talk about a double negative!

Fewer women than ever are married, and more are choosing not to have children. Those who do are increasingly starting a family later in life.

All of which indicates the growth of a ‘me first’ mentality, which may be admirable, as it means more independence, rewarding careers and sexual freedom, but I suspect many (younger) women forget that inevitably they will one day be old, needing care and support.

They aren’t bothering to save for that grim day, and credit card bills have never been higher.



Blair's babes: Politics, in spite of Blair's Babes, remains a macho environment- only one in five MPs is female

In business, many have decided that rather than try to struggle to the top of a male-dominated company, they will start their own businesses, where they set the rules — 90,000 did so in 2008.



Good luck, but the route they have chosen is not only financially risky and demanding, but side-steps the big issue, the need to overhaul the UK’s male-dominated leadership culture.



Why are those in power so frightened of giving women (the majority of the population, at 51 per cent) an equal number of seats at the table?

Why should change be ‘gradual’? There are 30 million women in the UK, and yet two-thirds of all public appointments go to men.



And what kind of women do these men choose to work with? Researchers have found that bosses, faced with two equally qualified candidates, are more likely to choose the one they find attractive or even secretly fancy.

Look at the online abuse heaped on respected academic and broadcaster Mary Beard after she appeared on Question Time — it won’t all have come from men. This woman has the effrontery to have grey hair and characterful teeth — hardly a crime.

I’m sure many young women secretly thought Mary should get her act together and smarten up — in their eyes, we should ‘make the most of ourselves’.

Futurologist Ian Pearson wrote a recent essay for the International Longevity Centre claiming that in the past women united against men (ie back in the Sixties) — but these days women are divided into groups, each fighting for their own special interests. Pretty versus plain, young versus old. Skilled versus unskilled. Either way, older women are being ignored.

Social networking means younger women can easily network with others who share their interests and lifestyles — many have less sympathy for an older generation.

Young women have benefited at work and risen up to managerial roles and decent pay (even outstripping men in some professions in their late 20s and early 30s), whereas women in their 50s tend to work in lower grades, earning far less than men of the same age.

To many young women, the old are the enemy, or the problem they don’t want to think about.

Look at the outcry over the lack of older women on television — there’s hardly been a groundswell of support from any of the young females who dominate prime-time television.

Discrimination is something you only care about when it happens to you. By the time today’s young women reach later life, who will pay for their care (and the number of women in residential homes far outstrips men) and look after them?