A few years ago I sat at the back of my son’s First Communion lesson, dismayed to see that the front row was full of girls, ramming their hands up and answering all the questions while the boys sat at the back looking bored and defeated.

Had I been a parent of girls, of course, I would have been delighted to see them up there in front, gaily overcoming 2,000 years of suppression by Church and state. But being mother to one of the boys, I found the scene depressing, as he and his friends did not seem able or willing to compete with the girls.