Apparently Kathy Lette, in the UK's Daily Mail, referred to Australia as "the land of cold beer and untrammelled misogyny". Obviously the beer comment is received with grace, dignity and a cheerful lifting of the pint glass in acceptance. But when it comes to the second half, I'm left wondering two things:

1) What country she's actually talking about. I mean, I had assumed Australia because it was about Julia Gillard, and as far as I was aware, she was now PM here, but given how fast things were moving last week, it's entirely possible that things got quantum and somewhere in there Jules ended up PM of, I don't know, Misogynia. Because the description certainly doesn't fit any Australia I've been living in for the past thirty years.

2) Whether Ms Lette has ever been to America, a country where I can't walk down the street in a major, east-coast city without getting ogled, leered at, hailed coarsely or otherwise nigh-unconsciously denigrated as a woman who dares to show more than three square inches of skin (or precisely the same amount I would show in Australia to absolutely no comment or ill treatment). I mean, I know she lives in the UK, a country with widely purchased newspapers featuring scantily-clad women, so clearly she's factored that into her declaration of Australian misogyny.

The bottom line is a point I have been making for at least ten years now: grass-roots gender equality is not necessarily represented by hierarchical gender equality. Sure, Jules is our first female PM. But I have never felt the need for male accompaniment when going out (as I am informed is absolutely essential in Ireland, which has been enjoying female leadership for years) or that I can't have my hair or skirt as short as I like (hi America, back to you) and surely I don't even have to make a point about India. When it boils down to the pure attitude of "I am free as a woman", Australia has it pretty damn good, actually. It's not perfect. There are still fights to be fought. But we're out there drinking as much cold beer as the men, and from where I'm standing, no one's hating it.

Except, apparently, Kathy Lette. But since she doesn't live here anymore, I don't see what business it is of hers anyway.