'We have a formidable female Prime Minister who...wiped the floor with her (male, pale and stale) opponent on Monday in the Commons,' writes Sarah Vine

There has never been a better time to be a woman.

We have a formidable female Prime Minister who was flanked on the front bench by two other women as she wiped the floor with her (male, pale and stale) opponent on Monday in the Commons.

Where once this would have seemed remarkable, now it’s the norm. Women in all walks of life are smashing glass ceilings, beating the men at their own game.

More and more girls are entering traditionally male-dominated fields, such as science, business and politics.

And in the world of media and showbusiness, the seemingly unstoppable #MeToo movement has errant male behaviour on the run.

In other words, it’s all a triumph for feminism.

Or is it? Because I can’t help sensing a slight sour taste in the mouth.

A feeling that, for all those who benefit from this brave new feminist world (and I speak as one of them), there are plenty for whom the picture is not nearly so pretty.

Half the population, to be precise.

It was Zoe Ball, of all people, who put her finger on it.

Opening up for the first time about the suicide of her boyfriend Billy Yates, the Radio 2 presenter spoke of the struggle he had encountered in getting help with his depression.

More tellingly, she added: ‘The number of young men killing themselves is shocking. Why? A lot of men I have spoken to have said it’s very confusing being a modern man. You want to be sensitive but also strong. You can’t win. It’s really hard trying to be both.’

What Zoe says is completely true. If I were a young man in today’s world I wouldn’t have the first clue what was required of me.

Say I am attracted to a young woman: how do I show my admiration without causing offence or, worse still, being accused of harassment?

Should I pay for dinner, or is that an insult to her independence? Can I send her flowers, or does that constitute a sexist micro-aggression?

'Opening up for the first time about the suicide of her boyfriend Billy Yates, the Radio 2 presenter [Zoe Ball] spoke of the struggle he had encountered in getting help with his depression'

No wonder the poor fellows are confused. No wonder they get frustrated and angry, or introverted and depressed.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating a return to the Fifties.

But while there seems to be endless help, praise and support for women in the modern world, there is very little focus — or interest — on where the male of the species fits in.

As the mother of a young boy, I see this clearly. Girls my son’s age are much more confident, clued-up, generally switched on.

They feel valued and empowered in a way boys simply don’t. Because I love my son, I do not want him growing up in a world where his very gender puts him at a disadvantage.

And yet, clearly it does. The statistics speak for themselves: 76 per cent of all suicides in the UK are male.

Fewer boys than girls now make it to university, and the gap is widening.

The overwhelming majority of people sleeping on our streets (88 per cent) are male; 95 per cent of our prison population is male. Men have a 37 per cent higher chance of dying from cancer than women.

If all that doesn’t constitute a cry for help, I don’t know what does. It’s time we listened to that desperate cry.

We women have to help men find a renewed purpose in our more equal society.

We have to appreciate that the qualities they bring are as valuable as our own.

And just as women have agonised over things such as motherhood versus career, the national conversation now needs to turn to how men cope in a baffling world where nothing they do ever seems right.

If equality for women can be achieved only at the cost of damaged men, it’s not worth having.

If in our eagerness to redress the balance, we only end up tipping the scales the other way, we will have become as bad as they were.

And feminism’s victory will be a hollow one.

It's patriotism not racism, Vince Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable says old people voted for Brexit out of nostalgia for a world ‘where faces were white’. He can speak for himself. I voted for Brexit to free this country from unelected, arrogant bureaucrats such as Jean-Claude Juncker, who this month parachuted one of his lackeys, a German lawyer called Martin Selmayr, into the position of the European Commission’s Secretary General. Selmayr, also unelected and unaccountable, will now lead 33,000 EU officials along whichever lines Mr Juncker tells him — i.e. anything hostile to Britain. Does loathing this make me a racist — or a democrat and patriot? Advertisement

Staying slim isn't easy!

'Poor Scarlett Moffatt, the Gogglebox star and I’m A Celebrity winner slammed for promoting her fitness DVD as the secret of her weight loss'

Poor Scarlett Moffatt, the Gogglebox star and I’m A Celebrity winner slammed for promoting her fitness DVD as the secret of her weight loss — when, in reality, she was attending fat camps and living on just 700 calories a day.

For natural fatties like me and Moffatt (left), staying slim is really hard.

We are like alcoholics, only our addiction is sugar. Any day could be the day we fall off the wagon — and wake up face-down in a bucket of empty Jaffa Cake boxes.

Judging by Moffatt’s recent weight gain, that’s what has happened to her.

As I keep saying, obesity is not a physical problem, but a mental one.

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QUESTION: Why is it that when a middle-aged, white politician even so much as winks at a middle-class woman these days, Westminster howls sexual harassment; and yet, when large groups of Asian men systematically rape and torture underage girls over the course of several decades, the story barely registers a blip on the BBC news radar?

ANSWER: Could it be, perhaps, that #MeToo applies only if you’re a self-promoting journalist or an approved member of the Twitterati? Whereas, being white, poor and female means you’re fair game.

Watch out Vlad! At the risk of putting my life on the line, can I warn Russian President Vladimir Putin that if he doesn’t lay off the plastic surgery he’s going to end up looking like this Cabbage Patch doll. Advertisement

When my children were young, my mantra was: ‘If it’s not bleeding or broken, don’t bother me.’

Teaching children to deal with danger is just as much a part of being a parent as keeping them safe — more so perhaps, since, sooner or later, they’re going to have to learn to live out in the big bad world.

So all hail the nursery headteacher from Essex, Debbie Hughes, who instead of mollycoddling her young charges with ergonomically designed, safety-approved plastic lets them mess around with scissors, staplers, planks of wood and mud pits.

It may not always make for an easy life, but at least she won’t be rearing the next generation of snowflakes.

Now Britain is finally back in the black, there’s even more reason to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of office. It took New Labour the best part of a decade to bankrupt Britain; Comrade Corbyn would manage it in ten weeks.

Former Liverpool footballer Jamie Carragher spitting at a car carrying a 14-year-old girl was obviously revolting.

But what kind of moronic father deliberately goads another man while driving his daughter — all the while using his mobile (illegally) to video the incident.

What a depressing snapshot of modern life this is.

Hillary Clinton has blamed white women for voting for Donald Trump — apparently, they did it because their husbands told them to.

She really is the personification of Liberal condescension.

Lesson for Meghan

While Royal watchers ooh and aah over Meghan Markle’s increasingly extravagant clothing choices, Princess Anne showcases an entirely different type of royal style.

Here she is on Monday in a coat she first wore in 1985. Thrifty. What’s more, it still fits her.

Now that’s real class.