Welcome to The i Paper’s new opinion series, How I Parent , in which our writers open up about how they tackle challenges of raising their children in our complex modern age.

A decade or so ago, my daughter came home from infant school enraged. “Our teachers,” she spluttered, “treat us girls no better than if we were scullery maids!”

Her indignation was real; even if the expression of it was more indicative of the alternative reality she lived through reading too many of Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers books.

However comic those words might be coming from the mouth of a seven-year-old in the 21st century, they pointed at the enduring role played by ideas of class and status in British society . And with wealth inequality in the UK rising, that is unlikely to change any time s

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