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Meghan Markle is far from a feminist icon

Opinion: 'Suits' actor quit her career to marry into one of the world’s most patriarchal institutions

Apparently Meghan Markle, now Mrs Harry Windsor, is the "most talked about woman of the summer". Apparently there's "something about her". Apparently she's a dazzling, sparkling, charming feminist icon.

There was huge excitement in Dublin this week about her visit, with her new husband Prince Harry, on their first foreign trip as the newly-wed Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

And why not? Everyone loves a bit of diversion, some celebrity glamour – escapism from the reality of our everyday. No harm at all in taking a day off, to stand on Camden Street in the hope of catching a glimpse of the glamorous and inordinately wealthy young couple.

Perplexing, however, has been the rush to fall headlong for the most improbable fantasy of all - that the newest member of the British royal family will be a champion of women’s and girls’ rights.

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But the escapism was infectious. Alongside selfies from the summer garden party at the British ambassador's residence on Tuesday evening were the posts revealing not only that Mrs Windsor, in her third outfit of the day, was "wearing" Emilia Wickstead – a New Zealand designer apparently whose dresses retail for about €1,500 – but that she was "pleased" with Ireland's abortion referendum result, she talked about her "feminist activism" with guests and chatted "about feminism".

At best, her address was meaningless

Let’s take a look at Mrs Windsor’s feminism. The Royal Family website tells us that at aged 11 “she successfully campaigned for a company to alter their television advert that had used sexist language to sell washing-up liquid.

"Her Royal Highness also volunteered at a soup kitchen in Skid Row, Los Angeles from the age of 13-17. These early experiences helped to shape her lifelong commitment to causes such as social justice and women's empowerment."

She's known to advocate for greater participation by girls in STEM subjects and in a speech to a United Nations forum in 2015 she declared she was "proud to be a woman and a feminist".

In February, in her first “working event” with the in-laws-to-be, she said: “I hear a lot of people speaking about girls’ empowerment and women’s empowerment. You will hear people saying they are helping women find their voices. I fundamentally disagree with that because women don’t need to find their voices, they need to be empowered to use it and people need to be urged to listen.”

This is tame stuff. Her pat statement that women simply need to "find their voices" – and people (men and the deep-rooted structures that favour them?) need to be "urged to listen" offensively misunderstands the obstacles faced by real women – struggling with poverty, low-paid dead-end jobs, single parenthood, mental-health problems, racism, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, not to mention those fleeing war-zones, the ravages of climate change or having their children kidnapped by immigration police at the US-Mexican border.

At best, her address was meaningless. No wonder the audience loved it.

And now, she has given up her career, to marry into one of the most patriarchal institutions on the planet: a vestige of feudalism which only recently officially overhauled its male-preference succession system.

Markle, in the role she has chosen, will do nothing for working women and their children

She will abide by its “rules” that she must always wear tights at official engagement, cross her legs when seated, and will never say anything “political”.

She will live in obscene wealth, changing into multi-thousand-euro outfits several times a day, in a country where persistent poverty surged by 18 per cent last year, rising faster among women than men.

The poverty gender gap in Britain last year – the male rate was 6.3 per cent, the female 8.2 per cent according to the Office of National Statistics – was at its highest since data gathering began on this issue a decade ago.

As in Ireland, British child poverty rates are highest among those whose mothers parent alone. Research by Gingerbread published in February found one in three children with a working single parent lived in poverty. By 2021 two-thirds will be.

According to the Resolution think-tank, in Britain women do most of the low-paid (and unpaid) work, with 22 per cent of all working women earning less than two-thirds of the typical hourly wage of £8.55, compared with just 14 per cent of working men.

Markle, in the role she has chosen, will do nothing for these women and their children. The position she now holds, at the apex of the British class system, is bulwarked today by the worsening living conditions of working men, and even more so women, in the real world.

Yes, this has been a wonderful year for Irish feminism. We have a right to celebrate that. I have written recently about the increasing number of young mothers in some of the poorest parts of Dublin dying by suicide. Real life in Ireland continues to discriminate, break, maim and even kill too many of our sisters.

Feminists will continue to discomfit, challenge and even terrify the powers that continue to discriminate against us.

Harry and Meghan are not the kind of company we should keep.