Shocked? You shouldn't be.

Recent figures released have shown a 25% increase in crime committed by girls in the last three years, a proportion of which is violent crime.

So why has the fair sex suddenly turned into the fighting sex? Women brawling in the street with each other and attacking police officers would have been virtually unheard of 50 years ago.

The increase in violent crime is surely down to the rise of ladette culture in Britain with more young women drinking more alcohol and getting into more fights.

You only have to watch any programme following police officers on their weekend nighttime patrols of town centres to see that women can be just as drunk, loud and violent as their male counterparts.

I've no doubt that the violent incidents are drink-fuelled. Why do girls feel they have to behave like this? Do they feel they have to be equal to men in terms of how much they drink?

It is not sexist to say that women physically cannot cope with drink in the same way that men can. By attempting to, they are damaging their bodies in the short term, through falls and suchlike, but also in the long run, particularly in terms of liver disease.

The other chief danger for women and drink is the threat of rape. The chances of a woman being raped and no conviction resulting are increased when women are drunk.

Of course, most of the dangers associated with drink also apply to men, so I suppose the question is how women want to be perceived. Do they think that being sick in the street, fighting and swearing at police officers should be seen as normal?

Pubs and television have had a large role in the promotion of binge-drinking in this country, for both men and women, but people still have a chance of when to say 'when'.

There are plenty of women who have equalled and bettered men without getting roaringly drunk in public.

Women, quite rightly, now have a more central role in the running of society than ever before. We have had a recent woman head of internal security service MI5, Stella Rimmington, and in America Hilary Clinton is currently bidding to become the most powerful person in the world.