Sir, - Sharon Coady's letter (October 1st), highlighted the success of the feminist movement in obtaining equality for women in modern Irish society, when she observed women having to fend for themselves in the rush to board a train in Pearse railway station.
Ms Coady's observations of a woman struggling with small children to board a train, and a pregnant woman standing in the aisle are to be condemned and in a just society this should not happen.
The main culprits for rudeness were identified as middle-aged professional people, who may have experienced the effects of the feminist movement in obtaining their perverted sense of equality. Women have now the same equality rights as men; the right to open their own doors; the right to get sore backs and feet standing in pubs, trains, and buses without being offered a seat.
So to answer Ms Coady's question: why have individuals turned out to be so ill-mannered? Well, the feminists fought for it, the feminist got it, so the rest of women will have to live with it. Men, and I include myself, have experienced rude and abusive behaviour from women if we, out of politeness, open a door for them. So why should anyone query the disappearance of what used be called gentlemanly behaviour?
Women like Ms Coady seem to want their cake and eat it as well; they want the right to fend for themselves, without actually having to fend for themselves. One wonders if Ms Coady ever gave up her seat for a frail old man, or did she as she described her other fellow travellers doing, open up her copy of The Irish Times so that eye contact could not be made?
However, I intend to remain a gentleman, who treats women as equals but with curiosity and respect. To do anything else would be lower myself to the level of a feminist. - Yours, etc.,
Alan McGivergan, Donabate, Co Dublin.