Steven Walker is proud to be a feminist.

He is happy to do housework and share the care responsibilities for his daughter.

Steven, a psychologist and author, 67, of Walton, is is proud to be pulling his weight at home.

His mum taught him to knit at the age of seven, and by the time he was thirteen he was already cooking family meals.

Having worked as a social worker for over ten years, he witnessed some brutal cases of women trapped indoors with abusive husbands, which further fed his passion for feminism.

He said: “These women had no education, no financial independence and no means of escaping violent, cruel men.

“I often had to rescue women and take them to women’s refuges where they could mentally recover and re-build their shattered lives.

“Their children were mentally scarred for life by what they witnessed men doing.”

Steven’s grandmother, Florence Walker, was a suffragette and his mother, Mary Walker, worked outside the home.

But despite living in a time when women were expected to be stay-at-home mums, Steven remembers both his father James Walker and grandfather Robert Walker were supportive of their wives.

He said: “My grandfather was a gentleman and my father was also quiet.

“They have always respected them.”

Steven thinks there is still a big misunderstanding when it comes to the word feminism, with feminist ideas sometimes being distorted and presented as ‘man-hating’.

He added: ”Thankfully this has encouraged men to choose to become house parents, and women to have full-time careers or in the case of my wife and I, to share the care of our daughter and both work part-time.

“As it happens, I do all the cooking and most of the housework and helped look after my frail elderly mother in law when she required looking after at home.”

Steven and his wife Isobel Walker, 63, have been married for 29 years.

He said his decision to help at home still leaves people puzzled, especially during social gatherings when everyone expects his wife to have cooked the meal.

He added: “Some of the people we know are surprised when I cook the meal. If we have someone over, the assumption is my wife cooked but it’s actually me.

“I notice some people react but don’t say anything.

“When we go to other people’s homes for dinner it is mostly the wife who does the cooking. “

Steven, who is now a part-time psychology lecturer at the University of Essex, has also shared the childcare of his daughter Rose Walker, 28.

She is proudly walking into his father’s footsteps now and was even elected president of the feminist society during her time at the Royal Holloway.

Steven said: ”My wife needed to work and feel independent and equally I wanted to be more than a part time dad.

“I wanted to be there as such time possible for my daughter so we both had half a week each working.

“It was still unusual in 1993 when my daughter was born for men and women to do what we did with my wife. “

As part of their ‘agreement’, Steven and his wife, who used to be a nurse, are still sharing the household workload.

He loves cooking, and Isobel enjoys doing gardening and laundry.

Steven added: “We know women are unhappy and don’t feel fulfilled if they are only looking after their children.

“They would like to be much more actively involved in their career and work.

“But there are also women who are perfectly happy to be child carers.

“It is about whether women have a choice and I don’t think they have much in fulfilling their potential.”