The voice of Big Mother does more for women than any Twitter feminist

Feminism in modern Britain is not for the faint-hearted. Only the smartest, mouthiest girls on the social media scene dare join the fray — in print, in blogs, on Twitter — where they yell silently at each other in front of a mute but poisonous audience.

It often seems not so much a fight for ladies’ rights as for territory: Caitlin Moran, Lily Allen, Laurie Penny, all jostling to own each particular piece of feminist turf.

So it pleases me, secretly, that quite unnoticed by the Twitter girls, another woman’s voice, one that speaks aloud to millions every day, has done more (I suspect) to advance equality than the whole shouty lot of them.

I noticed her first when I answered a phone call from an anonymous number not so long ago. Though prerecorded, the lady’s voice that started up was so pleasant that I kept listening for a while. The modern world is difficult, she said, and we all struggle with debt.