While professional kitchens have a reputation for being testosterone-fuelled, Smyth said that most inappropriate behaviour comes from drunken male customers behaving badly towards waitresses. "I see a lot of things. Believe me, when you work front of house at a restaurant and you've got middle aged men who have had a few drinks and you're a pretty young woman - the stuff that gets said is absolutely disgusting," Smyth said.

The trumpet, trombone and tuba are almost exclusively male preserves, while the harp is the only instrument skewed in the opposite direction.

Discussing her journey towards becoming a bishop,the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek spoke of "discovering the joy of being in leadership alongside men, as an equal" and having "the privilege of working with an amazing male vicar". She went on: "Sometimes now, I get frustrated when I go to churches where I see all women at the front in positions of leadership, just as I used to get frustrated seeing all men at the front of leadership. "For me, I want to see diverse leadership of all sorts, and part of that includes men and women working together."

The series has been criticised in the past as sexist, classist and anti-environmentalist. Small changes have been introduced in recent years, including the arrival of a Japanese engine, Hiro, and a spin-off DVD featuring engines from other countries. But the new overhaul, beginning with the 2018 series, is the biggest transformation since the television adaptation was first broadcast in 1984.