Way back in the year 2015 my daughter graduated with a first class degree. There was nothing particularly remarkable about that, nor the fact that she was a single mother with two young children and unsurprisingly, no special allowances or commendations came her way. The same year a single father of one also graduated and it made all the national dailies. I don’t think there were ever any plans to make a film about it starring Tom Cruise but the story created a great deal of interest and the man basked in a warm sense of approval for a short while. Not a massive insult to womankind I admit but just another small example of everyday sexism. I suppose a single man looking after a child while pursuing a university course is far more unusual than a single women with a child/children doing the same and is therefore more newsworthy but it does explain the fact that it was somehow seen as a much greater and more praiseworthy
achievement for a man than a woman.
