Whether we like it or not, those of us born female - with XX chromosomes and female genitalia - are socialised to be pretty and passive and deferential, if not by our families, then by a broader society that increasingly demands such attributes of women and girls. When puberty arrives it brings with it the joy of monthly menstrual cramps and the beginnings of a 30 to 40 year battle to avoid unwanted pregnancy.

Our physical capacities and our personal freedoms are diminished by womanhood. But at the same time we see our male counterparts growing bigger and stronger, with fun dangly things between their legs and an unfettered capacity for adventure.

??Most of us understand what it's like to have dreams and aspirations beyond what society expects of us. Because of our 'female' socialisation, we do our best to understand and empathise with the distress and pain felt by others, including transgender persons. We know we cannot live their experience, but we do our best.?

Sadly, as has been demonstrated in innumerable public forums, many transgender persons – particularly male to female transgender persons – are unwilling to afford biological women the same consideration.

Somehow, their suffering must be acknowledged to be greater, their needs must be prioritised, and they must be permitted to insult, label and ridicule biological women who argue against their superior entitlement.

We female-born women are trained to be endlessly accommodating, but the current trans agenda is really testing our patience, particularly when we are set upon by other female-born trans ‘allies’.

In fact, our overtly patriarchal society is working overtime to put women back ‘where they belong’. Women and girls are being sexually assaulted, killed and injured in domestic violence and exploited in pornography and in the sex trade in record numbers. The latter exploitation is promoted by many, including leading human rights organisations, as being ‘empowering’ for women.

And now, we are expected to cede the feminist agenda to male-born persons who identify as female, and accept the blame for male violence against transgender women.

It’s so absurd I’d be laughing, if it weren’t for the tears of anger and frustration and the despair I feel when I look at my two-year old grand-daughter and wonder what life will hold for her.

And, yes, I’ve been called a TERF – before I even knew what it meant.