YEP Says: Hoping for the day when equality is achieved for all

This is the historic Scottish golf course stripped this week of the right to host The Open after members did not allow vote in sufficient numbers for females to become members of the men-only club owned and run by The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.

As long as these dinosaur-like attitudes persist, such occasions are necessary to celebrate the invaluable role of women in walks of life from the record-breaking Yorkshire Rows who paddled across the Atlantic to Jayne Senior, who blew the whistle on the Rotherham sex grooming scandal to those selfless individuals making a difference in the region’s public services and those mothers simply being good mums to their children.

Unlike the pompous golfers of Muirfield, Leeds is far more enlightened and employers, both in the public and private sector, are far more accommodating of those who want to juggle their professional careers with the responsibility of bringing up a young family.

Hopefully the day will soon come when women-only awards are perceived as demeaning because Leeds is open to all and found a way to embrace equality in a meritocracy – that’s the next challenge.