Often it is not until you leave the comfort of daily life that you realise just how lucky we are to live here in the UK with a culture of equality for all.

We live in a society where it is not even considered that a girl might be less worthy of an education.

Up until the age of 18, girls surpass boys in exam success and there is an equal gender split in access to higher education and girls are increasingly encouraged to study traditionally male subjects – maths, science and engineering.

A recent trip to Morocco served to highlight the difference in the way females are viewed around the world. Being the last day of the school half term holidays and being in charge of three boys who resembled bronzed scarecrows, I decided that a trip to a barber’s shop was in order.

I should probably explain that whilst this may seem a relatively mundane activity, not usually worthy of any column inches, we were at the time staying inside the medina in the heart of Marrakech.

After locating a back street Berber barber (d’ya get it..?) I frogmarched in the three boys and after some rather comical haggling and gesticulating, we endeavoured to start the transformation.

Communication was not the easiest. I fear my Arabic has got a little rusty over the years. I had a 10 year old who was convinced that I had hatched a plan to send him back to school looking like a Millwall supporter.

What astounded me was the way in which despite it being me who was striking up conversation, the Morrocan barber directed every answer or reciprocal conversion across the shop to my husband – much to his utter amusement.

As a woman, my opinion was not relevant.

That is a sentence I never believed I would actually write.

A simple Google search revealed that in rural Morocco, 87 per cent of females are illiterate and the ratio of boys to girls in primary and secondary school is 87 to nine – a shocking statistic by anyone’s standards.

In fact Morocco is rated fourth in the top 10 countries of the world with the largest divide between male and female status.

Perhaps because I have only boys, I just don’t seem to get as worked up about gender stereotyping as some of my friends do.

Our girls are so lucky, as are our boys. They are given the opportunity of education and encouraged to achieve.

Granted it may still be relatively uncommon to see women at the top of multinational corporations and heading up Governments, but I’m just not convinced that this is entirely a decision which is out of our hands.

Maybe we’re just a bit smarter and we choose different paths.

I have yet to walk into a shop in this country and accept that I will be overlooked in favour of my husband – even if he’s paid the shopkeeper in advance.

Maybe it’s time to stop wingeing and just to get on with it. I know life is about choice but sometimes that feels like a bit of a cop out.

If you are an educated woman, go and use your education. It is possible to raise a family and contribute something meaningful to society too.

The biggest influence on any child has got to be their parents. If we want our children to grow up feeling liberated and inspired, surely it’s our responsibility to liberate and inspire them and be a great role model for them.

So stop buying Barbie princesses for your daughters and astronaut suits for your sons and see if we can’t raise a generation of female car mechanics and male midwives.

If all else fails, there’s definitely a market for some female hairdressers in Marrakesh, though you may find the commute a bit of a pain.