By Wednesday America may have elected its first woman president. In the UK we now have the second woman prime minister. Western society seems to be increasingly woman-dominated, a view heartily endorsed by Jenni Murray, well-known to listeners of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, which she has presented for almost 30 years.

She has recently published A History of Britain in 21 Women and, as you would expect, her list is strong on educational and political pioneers, such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Emmeline Pankhurst, Mary Somerville and Margaret Thatcher, but weak on what I would describe as “women of the spirit” (a subtle difference from the “women of spirit” that Murray promotes).