Forty years ago there was one woman’s group fighting for women’s rights, now every woman is a woman fighting for women’s rights. You have to ask yourself why men don’t do the same. The answer probably is that until your rights as a father have been taken from you, you don’t realise there’s anything to fight for. You don’t realise that men’s rights are being chipped away in the most insidious way.

You only need to listen to some of the advertisements out these days and educated middle class commentators (male and female) to know that all men are either dopes or aggressive towards women or sex fiends. Women can dump their children at the nearest crèche, or organise before and after school care and trot off to pursue their careers, but they are still considered the nurturing sex. In the last few decades I’ve noticed that men have taken a greater interest in their children and a greater involvement in their lives yet they are still left out in the cold when it comes to primary custody.

Until men find themselves in the position of being a father who has been separated from his children, men still think it’s a man’s world. My advice is that men should start setting up groups for men’s rights in general, not specifically only when it’s about dads because by the time it gets to that stage, not too much we can do about it except to complain to each other. These groups may have to fight off a bit of derision, but women were ignored and their concerns were laughed at, at first but they stuck with it. Goes to show who the stronger sex is, doesn’t it?

My advice is — nip it in the bud. Whenever you hear or read or watch an advertisement that is obviously or subtly sexist towards men, write a letter of complaint. Letters are more effective than emails or phone calls. Get a group of you together and write a letter of complaint to the company selling the product and say you refuse to buy their product. Forward a copy to the newspapers. Do it at once and keep it up. There are a lot of women in advertising now. You might want to think that one through too. Don’t allow radio or TV commentators to imply in any way that women are somehow better than men. It’s not possible. We’re a two gender species. I’ve noticed that women will never — ever — criticise other women, not matter how obvious it is that there is something to criticise. It’s the sisterhood thing. Every woman may not speak about it openly but every woman knows about it. Take a leaf out of their book.

Finally, web sites like this are fantastic, but they only cater to men who have already lost their rights. Like women’s groups have done, we need to broaden our parameters and educate the public in general. We need to include ‘outsider’ men in this crusade.