Three-year-old Sorenne goes to daycare, and they have programs that parents pay extra for, like soccer.

So I said, sign the 3-year-old up for an hour of soccer once a week.

The female staff looked at me liked I’d lost it.

One said, we’ve never had a girl this young in soccer, it’s all boys, won’t she be intimidated?

I signed her up.

Australia can be sexist like that. So can anywhere.

When I first met Amy, I asked her what she did, and she said something about literature and feminist studies.

I giggled.

Because, like Stephen Colbert doesn’t see race, I don’t see gender.

I am a father with five daughters. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s speech in Parliament last night, which has apparently gone viral (although it could be edited down to 5 minutes rather than 15), touched a nerve. Any society that wants to solve any problem, food safety included, needs to empower both genders; otherwise you’re leaving out over 50 per cent of the brain power.

I can’t wait to load up on hockey equipment in the U.S. over Christmas and then come back and help Sorenne invent girls hockey (the ice kind) in Australia. And if she decides that’s not for her, OK.