Having read the long read on the background to the Sex Discrimination Act, I was astounded that there was no mention of the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) led by Pauline Gower, who pioneered sex equality in the workplace in the ATA, equal pay for male and female pilots, and equality of opportunity based on merit. To the female pilots who joined the ATA this was astounding, given the sex discrimination and misogyny that they were subjected to in their prewar flying careers. These women are the subject of an excellent book by Becky Aikman that I have just finished reading: Spitfires – The American Women Who Flew In The Face Of Danger During World War II, which tellingly recounts how their experiences in the ATA opened their eyes to the need for sex discrimination to be eliminated in the US. They aspired to serve on the frontline, but this was prohibited by the ATA and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) as they were not part of the armed forces. They looked to the postwar world in the US for their flying futures in civil airlines, but this aspiration was stifled by the unchanging sex discrimination, coupled with a large cadre of demobbed male USAAF pilots seeking civilian careers. Unfortunately, much the same was true here in the UK. Sadly, Gower died in 1947, aged only 36. One wonders what might have been had she lived longer and been able to continue promoting workplace equality for women and the banning of sex discrimination. Paul F Faupel Somersham, Cambs