IF, like me, you’re a woman who has been in employment for nearly three decades, chances are you’ll have encountered some form of discrimination or harassment in a workplace.

Working as a temp, pre-journalism, I had one or two Neanderthal colleagues, including a boorish sales rep who regularly groped young women in the office. When he pressed me up against a filing cabinet in a quiet corner and grabbed at my skirt, I didn’t tell anyone. I was barely in my twenties, he was one of the office big guns and everyone knew he “liked a laugh”. So I kept my mouth shut.

In another temping job, a male cleaner followed me into a store room, shut the door behind him and clumsily lunged at me. When I told his manager, a woman, she said I was friendly with him, so what did I expect? I didn’t take it further.

So I kind of get why women in the entertainment industry are only now coming forward about incidents that happened some time ago. Sexual harassment and exploitation have long been rife in the film and record industries, and surely many people have been aware of it. Youth, intimidation, even fear may have prevented some from speaking out initially. For others, going public would’ve meant rocking the boat and putting careers at risk.

I’m just not sure the rather smug Time’s Up approach is the way to bring about a sea change in equality. Some of it doesn’t sit well; the women-only presenters at the recent Screen Actors Guild awards, the snide anti-men comments, mocking male nominees, at the Golden Globes, the sobbing female posse hogging the cameras during Kesha’s performance at this week’s Grammys. And the witch hunts that, in some cases, are an unsettling reminder of the McCarthy era.

This is, we’re told, the ‘year of the woman’. It is 100 years since some women got the right to vote - in suffrage and in the workplace we have much to thank female forebears for. Of course we should celebrate female empowerment. But that shouldn’t mean belittling and excluding men in the process. That’s not equality. Would it be acceptable to have men-only presenters at an awards ceremony, or high-profile male stars making sneering remarks questioning the credibility of female nominees?

For the past century, since women starved and chained themselves to railings, the road to sexual equality has been a long one.

At a journalism awards ceremony several years ago, I watched a group of men swagger onto the stage, slapping each others’ backs as they received the night’s biggest prize. I looked around the room; nearly half the tables had only men seated at them, while others had both men and women, but mostly men. I thought how male-dominated the profession appeared to be, nearly a decade into the 21st century.

Twenty years earlier, it was even more so. And attitudes towards women in newsrooms were very different. Equality in any industry doesn’t happen overnight. As the BBC wage row shows, the gender pay gap remains a thorny issue. But does the decision by some high-profile male broadcasters to reduce their salaries mean equality? In the past I've been paid less than some male colleagues, despite me having more qualifications, higher productivity levels and working longer hours. Reducing their salaries would’ve been a hollow gesture - I wanted to earn as much as them, at least.

An equal playing field means parity between men and women who are doing the same job. It also means mutual respect. That’s something we can continue to work on, in this year of the woman.

* SITTING through an awards ceremony, even a glitzy, star-studded one, can be a long night. I'd imagine it's even more exhausting if you're just six-years-old.

At this week's Grammys, Beyonce and Jay Z had front row seats with their daughter, Blue Ivy. Seemingly ruffled by their enthusiastic applause, the youngster was spotted putting her superstar parents in their place with a 'calm down' gesture.

Meanwhile, singer Pink introduced her daughter Willow to Rihanna backstage and posted a snap of the pair with the caption: "My daughter lives for this woman. So do I."

Both Blue Ivy and Willow are six. Shouldn't little girls be tucked up in bed late on a Sunday night?

* WHAT'S your shower anthem?

Research by interiors etailer Furniture123.co.uk reveals that for most folk the favourite place to sing is the shower, followed by the car and the kitchen. The top shower anthem is Madonna's Like a Virgin, followed by the likes of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and Wonderwall by Oasis.

One in three surveyed believe they have a great singing voice. When I'm at the wheel of my car, belting out numbers from my Greatest Showman CD, I have the voice of an angel. Self delusion is fun when no-one's listening.