Letter: A man's comment on a woman's conduct

It is Chris Blackhurst, rather than Nicola Horlick, who could damage the cause of women's equality in the City ("Has she hurt the cause of equality?", 19 January). Why did he focus on Ms Horlick's figure, make- up and "dark, forbidding clothes"? Why comment on the fact that Ms Horlick engaged a top lawyer or that she is fiercely ambitious - a quality much valued in City men.

Certainly, parents with demanding jobs have to juggle their home lives with the need to be seen to be always available at work. But it is not clear what Mr Blackhurst feels women working in the City's "old-fashioned, sexist", "male, laddish culture" should do. Criticism is meted out in equal measure to tough superwomen and those torn apart by the sacrifices they have made.

However Ms Horlick had chosen to play this one it wouldn't have been good enough. I am confident that women working in the City whatever their level of seniority will treat this article with the contempt it deserves, and I hope their male colleagues will be as sensible.

Kate Bennett

Manufacturing, Science and Finance,

Caerphilly, Mid Glamorgan