LETTER:Shop-soiled

From Ms Patricia Rock

and Ms Brenda Ellis

Sir: We were so sorry to read about what a distressing time Germaine Greer had at Sainsbury's (10 November), beset as she was with so many disabled people and women with small children who clearly had no business being out.

It seems Ms Greer only sees the working woman as being the one in a hurry.We are sure most women do not go to Sainsbury's "for fun". Being a housewife is a full-time job and being a disabled woman in a world filled with architectural barriers is exhausting - especially if one is a working mum. "Sisterhood is powerful" is obviously something Ms Greer talked of in the Seventies and discarded in the Nineties. Women's solidarity is definitely not on her agenda any more.

It is a shame that such a renowned champion of women's rights should so resent the right of access being granted to disabled people and women with small children. Without the changes made by Sainsbury's, many disabled people would be unable to experience the small inconveniences of convenience- store life. We have been locked in backrooms and institutions for too long, and have been dispatched to even more sinister fates because we were "inconvenient".

Yours faithfully,

Patricia Rock

Chair of British Disabled Women's

Group of British Council of

Disabled People

Brenda Ellis

Head of Policy, Greater London Association of Disabled People

Derby