The English sports media has been giving extensive coverage to the current controversy over sexist comments about female football officials made by commentators Andy Gray and Richard Keys.Mr Gray was dismissed by Sky Sports and Mr Keys resigned once further sexist comments were made public.Both have claimed that the comments were “banter” never intended to be aired, and that they were no different from what you would hear between men in any football dressing room. The crux of the comments was that someone, presumably a man, would have to explain the offside rule to the female lineswoman and that she was bound to make a mistake in the upcoming game.The fact both men had lost their jobs in the wake of their non-apologies is correct. The notion that women are somehow genetically incapable of officiating a football game is deeply insulting and has no place in modern life.But the incident does demonstrate that sexism remains alive and well, not just in football, but in all facets of modern life.It may not be expressed as explicitly as it was by Mr Gray and Mr Keys, but it exists, in Bermuda, in England and around the world.On the surface, Bermuda has made great strides. Three of the last five Premiers of Bermuda have been female. Two out of five Supreme Court judges are women. Women hold many of the top posts in the Civil Service.There are more women chief executives in private companies, both in the domestic business sector and in international companies, than there ever have been.But those facts hide the fact that women are still discriminated against in hiring and promotion in many fields. Although the number of women in Cabinet increased markedly when Premier Paula Cox succeeded Premier Dr Ewart Brown, there are still just five women in a Cabinet of 13, and in the House of Assembly only seven MPs out of 36 are female. The situation is somewhat better in the Senate where there are five women out of 11.Similarly, in business, most businesses are led by men, with notable exceptions.Blatant sexism may not occur that often, but more subtle forms of discrimination and some forms of institutional discrimination also continue, as is also the case with race.In particular, the issue of child-rearing places women at a disadvantage. Mothers must take time off from work for maternity and are often torn when they return to work. Those mothers who choose to stay with their children for longer than the minimum period of maternity leave find themselves at a massive disadvantage once they rejoin the workforce. And choosing between your children and your career is an invidious choice.It is true that there are “house husbands”, and that many men take on more domestic responsibilities than their fathers and certainly their grandfathers would have dreamed of.But the bulk of childrearing still falls on mothers, and in single parent families, often led by women, the responsibility for collecting children from school, overseeing homework, cooking meals and the like invariably falls on the mother.All of this reduces the amount of time mothers can spend at work, and success is often predicated on hours worked. Many mothers learn to work efficiently in the time they do have available, but there are times when simply putting in the hours is the only solution. And if a mother works in a company where “face time”, as opposed to genuine productivity, is what counts, then forget it.So Bermuda still has a long way to go. The formation of the Women’s Council and greater emphasis on women (most of which has lain moribund since 1998 when the Progressive Labour Party came to power) is welcome.There has also been talk about ensuring that there is gender equality in pay, although this tends to be difficult to quantify, and in Bermuda, the average pay for women is now higher than it is for men, although that may have something to do with the slump in the construction industry, which was highly paid and male-dominated.But talk is cheap, as are awards and so forth. Real action is what is needed.