We shouldn't be proud that London is the best megacity for women – we should be ashamed that it's the best we've got

I pondered this apparent cause for celebration as I took a stroll during my lunch break this afternoon while listening to a delightful story about a man who ejaculated on a woman's legs on the tube

Sexual assaults on the tube still happen with alarming frequency (Getty)

It might be the worst news I’ve heard all year. London is the best megacity in the world for women to live in, according to a new survey.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation poll found women in London had better access to healthcare and economic opportunity compared to 18 other global megacities, ranking top overall, but the capital fared less well when it came to women being protected from sexual violence and harmful cultural practices.

Still, everyone likes to be a winner. But as politicians are crafting their press releases, championing every policy they’ve introduced and every initiative they’ve funded, I find myself looking around and thinking: is this the best we’ve got?

I pondered this apparent cause for celebration as I took a stroll during my lunch break this afternoon while listening to a delightful story on Woman’s Hour about a man who ejaculated against a woman’s legs on the morning tube. London is the proud home of the London Stock Exchange, a true hub of the capital markets, yet only 25 per cent of FTSE 100 board directors are women. London claims one of the oldest parliaments, yet only 32 per cent of MPs are women, and they often get bullied and shouted down.

Turns out, even among the winning cities, there is no shortage of anti-woman material.

And whether it’s in Hackney or well-heeled Kensington, domestic violence and sexual assault are rife. Refuges are so busy and underfunded they are turning desperate women away (lest we forget, the Tories tried to fund them via the tax women pay for overpriced menstrual products.)

It was recently reported that a 17-year-old girl was subjected to three sexual assaults within an hour from five different men as she made her way home after a night out in east London.

We all have our own stories. I will never forget the sound of a man’s footsteps behind me one night as I walked home via Chalk Farm. I darted across the road and looked back – it was the same man I had told to get lost 20 minutes ago and he had followed me all the way from Camden.

Find me a woman in London who has not been harassed on the street. Find me a woman who has not experienced gender-related discrimination at work, or been on the receiving end of a sexist comment. Find me a woman in London who has not felt unsafe on public transport, or when she was walking home alone.

Again, is this the best we can do?

When Sadiq Khan became London Mayor, he declared himself a proud feminist and banned sexist advertising on the tube. We’re also finally getting a statue of a suffragist – the first statue of a woman in Parliament Square. (Statues are a big deal. London managed to erect a memorial dedicated to animals’ sacrifices during war a year before erecting a similar statue for women’s efforts.)

I can’t think of much else that would be an example of recent progress. It seems that Khan has been too busy with Brexit and men with bombs and men with knives, as we women wait patiently on the sidelines.

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women's Equality Party, got it right when she told Reuters: “Frankly it's a scandal that in one of the richest cities in the world, we see women doing so badly," and pointed to the cost of childcare and 60,000 reported domestic violence incidents last year.

Women were disproportionately affected by almost a decade of austerity – it was only 10 months ago that the Government decided to force women to prove they had been raped to claim £13 a week in tax credits for a third child. And women will be disproportionately affected by the erosion of worker, consumer and human rights when we leave the EU.

Critics may counter that we should feel grateful to live here. After all, London beat Tokyo, Paris and New York. It could be worse.

Yet I’m not sure the statistics will help us women in London the next time we get catcalled in the street or when, after walking home alone at night, we feel relief to walk through our front doors and send the obligatory “I’m back” text to our friends.

The statistic will not help women feel better when they have to sacrifice their career to have a baby or look after an aged parent, or when they explain to their children why the gender pay gap remains at an astonishing 18 per cent.

London: a utopia? Basically, I’m wondering if we should hide that positive press release until next year.