Sorry dinosaurs, 2024 was the year of the strong woman - Christa Ackroyd

Closer to home, our new Prime Minister ended the year by totally ignoring an Ombudsman’s decision that hundreds of thousands of women deserve compensation for not being given fair warning that the age they could claim their pension was not being phased in, but raised by five, six or even seven years in one fell swoop.

Which might be fine if he hadn’t stood by them during his election campaign holding their banners and slamming the Tories for not backing them. That’s on top of taking away the winter fuel allowance.

Which leaves me asking what was the point of a lengthy and costly inquiry if the conclusion they came to and the recommendation for what amounts to minimal compensation of less than £3,000 per woman was going to be completely ignored?

The least Keir Starmer could have done was to pledge to end the ever present gender pay gap which means women in general retire on far less than their male counterparts. But he will learn. Or face the consequences. We have long memories.

And then there was Gregg Wallace, proving not by his actions, for which he is still being investigated, but by his comments about “middle class women of a certain age” that misogyny still lives and walks among us. As if we didn’t know.

And yet I start a new year full of hope because it seems the politicians and the dinosaurs have forgotten one thing – we women are not taking it lying down. Because it’s not who we are any more. As if we ever were. Oh the sweet irony of Mr Wallace’s replacement on MasterChef.

A real food expert who is exactly what he denounced, a woman of a certain age. And a talented Northerner at that.

Oh the joy of witnessing men bristle on social media that it was an all woman presentation team on the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year, won, may I add after a public vote, by a female for the fourth consecutive year. And to think just a few years ago there was an outcry at the all male shortlist.

Meanwhile in Birmingham women who worked for the council under entirely different terms and conditions to their male counterparts stood firm, fought hard and were victorious. Because they wouldn’t give up or give in.

In Ireland a woman sexually assaulted by a high profile Irish martial arts fighter took her claim to the High Court where a jury found in her favour and he lost his reputation as being a hard man and a couple of lucrative endorsements into the bargain.

Meanwhile in France a woman drugged, raped and abused by her husband of many years who then allowed others to do the same, bravely waved her anonymity and became an international hero during the whole traumatic process. He got 20 years in jail, proving a wife is not a possession. And she is my woman of the year.

On a less obvious note Nicole Scherzinger took on the role of a lifetime as fading silent movie star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (which I was lucky enough to see) and when critics said she was too young to play the role she reminded us that in fact Norma and those of her ilk were considered too old in their forties to make it in the talkies.

And so at 45 she swept the board in this country at the theatre awards and will no doubt do the same in the States after her run on Broadway. It is not reinvention, she said. Just recognition.

Which all goes to act as a warning to those who think otherwise, that no matter how long it takes, we women will never forget the hurt, the sense of rejection and particularly the sense of injustice.

And so may I humbly suggest 2024 has been the year of the strong woman. Like Ms Scherzinger, it is not even a comeback. Because we have never actually gone away. Instead I believe we are more determined than we have ever been, and more empowered to stand together.

Or stand alone if we have to. What the dinosaurs forget is that we were raised to do so. Our mothers never got the recognition they deserved and those who broke away from ‘the norm’ were judged as selfish and labelled as ‘women’s libbers’. They in turn got their strength from the generation before which had kept this country afloat during the war.

And before them, they were inspired by women who had chained themselves to railings to give us a voice. And finally, no matter our age, no matter our perceived status, we are learning to use it. Do you think women enjoy being labelled as troublemakers for calling out unacceptable behaviour?

Do you think a woman in France enjoyed the attention of standing face to face with a man she had spent most of her life with and calling out his abuse? Or that Nicole wasn’t afraid of falling flat on her face as she was predicted by some to do?

And do you think the WASPI women wanted to spend their retirement marching, petitioning and campaigning only to have their victory snatched from them without even a sincere apology. No of course not. But let us remember these women are the same women who burned their bras and fought against sex discrimination throughout the sixties and seventies.

They marched against the bomb, for human rights and been politically active for far too long to stand in line now. The WASPI women were among the first generation where university was available to all. They learned to work and raise a family. And with birth control did so, or chose not to, on their own terms. They wore what they wanted to and continue to do so.

No middle aged uniform of conformity for them. And no more will they accept that when a woman reaches ‘a certain age’ she become invisible. In my fifties I was asked once by a newspaper journalist what I wanted to be remembered for, as if somehow my life was over.

My reply was that I still wanted to be doing what I love to do, seen and heard as an older woman. This year as a woman in my sixties and drawing my pension (note we have dropped the old age bit) I have filmed more than 20 odd episodes of network television.

I have more in the pipeline including one which will be seen globally. I say this not to boast but in recognition of who we have become.

For decades the older man has been revered for his ‘experience’ while good women have been thrown on the scrap heap.

Well I am here to tell you we are quite capable of dusting ourselves down and getting on with doing what we are good at.

And if that means telling it as it is, not taking no for an answer, then all to good.