"If you prick us do we not bleed?"

When I was at Nautical College in the 1950s some Cadets took dancing classes. They danced with each other. One told me: "It's a social asset." He was right.
There was a rush of young men to enter Britain at the end of June 1962 before the Commonwealth Immigration Act came into force. I too arrived back in London at that time following my failed attempts to live in Asia.
I went to dancing classes. There were twice as many men as women. So sometimes I danced with men.
Every weekend for 18 months I went to local town halls where public dances were held. There were at least 10 men for every woman. I never once had a dance with a young woman. This was not for want of trying. They always refused. But they never refused an Afro-Caribbean.
It was obvious to me that Commonwealth men would now come to the UK on tourist or student visas and find someone to marry in order to live here.
The first time a woman about my age accepted my invitation to dance was at the Royal Commonwealth Society in February 1964. In 1966 she said she wouldn't see me again unless I married her. We divorced in 1980.
The Equal Opportunities Commission successfully campaigned against the Conservatives' 1979 election policy to end the concession whereby foreign and Commonwealth men can live and work in the UK through marriage - even though the House of Lords subsequently (7 July 1983) determined that the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act does not apply to immigration control.
Even if native British men can live in their countries through marriage that does not make for equality. Because native British men who remain in the UK can lose out to foreign and Commonwealth men in obtaining work and promotion. If that is not so then the newly-formed (2007) Equality and Human Rights Commission is spending a lot of time, money and effort for nothing. In other words, reciprocity in this area is not conducive to equality because like is not being compared with like.