Dianna's Story: Treating children equally isn't new

When I decided to have children the world was a very different place from now. My kids were born in 1965 and 1967.

I decided not to dress then in the colour-coded style of the day.

My first, my daughter, looked amazing in her little black sweaters and red tights or vice versa. My son, too, wore basic primary colours. I bought them dolls with accurate anatomical bits, they had cars, Lego, musical instruments that were identical and when they became old enough I expected them to share the same household tasks.

They are both now in their 50s and I believe them to have benefited from my early refusal to treat them differently.

My daughter holds down a senior post in a large multinational company that does not operate a glass ceiling and my son is a musician.

Many people in the Sixties pointed fingers at me and criticised my approach, but I do not regret one bit of it.

I just felt sharing from someone who is now 80 might shed some light on the beginnings of the movements to treat our children equally.