will take a risk here - deep breath! - and say that in strictly factual terms, he's sort of right.
In that the KEY beneficiaries of the widening of access to universities in that period were the daughters the middle classes. And that they benefited far more than working class children.
Middle class girls, like their brothers, had the benefit of a family and community culture which viewed attending university as a 'normal', plus the benefit of attending better schools. And when university became 'free', the financial disincentive for sexist middle class parents to send their girls to uni disappeared.
The key missing link in his argument, is that working class children of BOTH sexes failed to benefit - or at least failed to benefit equally. Feminism failed to markedly improve the life chances of working class girls in this respect. (Though this is starting to change, as I can testify from my own family experience.)
His headline should be 'Class trumps egalitarianism'.
no subject
In that the KEY beneficiaries of the widening of access to universities in that period were the daughters the middle classes. And that they benefited far more than working class children.
Middle class girls, like their brothers, had the benefit of a family and community culture which viewed attending university as a 'normal', plus the benefit of attending better schools. And when university became 'free', the financial disincentive for sexist middle class parents to send their girls to uni disappeared.
The key missing link in his argument, is that working class children of BOTH sexes failed to benefit - or at least failed to benefit equally. Feminism failed to markedly improve the life chances of working class girls in this respect. (Though this is starting to change, as I can testify from my own family experience.)
His headline should be 'Class trumps egalitarianism'.