The Equality Illusion, By Kat Banyard

The sexism that still divides modern society

Kat Banyard wants to challenge the complacent notion that parity between the sexes has been achieved.

Her research shows that the proverbial glass ceiling remains very much intact: on average, women in the UK are paid 23 per cent less per hour than men.

She is particularly incisive on underlying sexist attitudes that perpetuate this inequality, which manifest in such pernicious developments as the normalisation of pornography. Society, she says, shows a "yogic ability to bend over backwards to ... accept and normalise" the subordination of the female.

Banyard's polemic is impassioned and lucid. Along with other recent works, such as Natasha Walter's Living Dolls, it signals a welcome resurgence in mainstream feminist writing.