For heaven’s sake!
Has anybody actually read the context?
1) Lady Hale was not responsible for the “banner” and had no prior knowledge of it.
2) she was speaking to a conference of State Girls’ Schools.
3) she certainly did not man “girly swot” to be used pejoratively - unlike Johnson who seems to think treating women as second class citizens (or “bits of torture”) as perfectly acceptable.
If I may quote for those who seem to have got the wrong end of the stick:
“Lady Hale said a few words before leaders of girls state schools and was glad to declare support for “girly swots” in that company,
Mr Johnson was revealed to have called his predecessor (David Cameron) a “girly swot” in an unredacted version of court documents relating to the prorogation. The handwritten note prompted condemnation of him for using sexist insults.
Wearing another animal-themed brooch, a diamanté dragonfly, Lady Hale, 74, spoke of her rise up the male-dominated legal profession to become the first woman appointed to the Law Commission in 1984 – and the first female president of the Supreme Court.
Arguing that single-sex schools allow girls the space to develop intellectual confidence and revel in being “swots”, she said her all-girls state-school education in Yorkshire meant she wasn’t interrupted by boys in class. “I found this in Cambridge – I was a girly swot and there were quite a few young men who were, similarly, “girly swots” … But sometimes supervisions were invaded by the other sort of male student, who wasn’t particularly interested in doing much … work, and who concentrated on trying to put the supervisor off with silly questions, and just generally not do a lot of work.”
As TM might have said “Remind you of anybody? “
Now what, please, do any of you object to in that
Encouraging girls to stand up to sexist intolerance?
Encouraging girls to take a pride in their intellectual and academic achievement?
Encouraging girls to be confident in what is still, sadly, frequently a sexist environment?
What is “unprofessional” for the first woman to reach her position in saying to girls and their teachers - “You can do this too, do not let others put you down for being a woman” ?
I am reading more sexism (or sheer lack of comprehension) in some replies which frankly surprise and disappoint me.
I thought better of you.