Women Folks

Human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney, met with national authorities on behalf of Nasheed whose jailing for 13 years following a highly controversial terrorism conviction in March sparked widespread international condemnation Photo: Getty Images A mushroom cloud of retro-sexism appears to have bloomed above the country, as though the derogatory attitudes we thought had been left in the 1980s have simply been simmering underground, waiting to reemerge, all along. Indeed, it is impossible to ignore the results of the Labour Party’s elections, which failed to return any woman to a leading role (Leader, Deputy or Mayoral Candidate) - nor the appointment of any woman to what are (traditionally) thought of as the most senior offices of state: Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, or Chancellor of the Exchequer. Even though the outstanding candidate for the latter position – Angela Eagle MP, formerly exchequer secretary to the Treasury in the Brown government and later shadow chief secretary to t