Jings! Who’d have thought Salmond was a feminist?

The First Minister has snubbed Scotland’s all-male golfing elite by announcing he won’t visit Muirfield when the Open Championship rolls into town because of its “no women” policy. Good on him.

A few months back in The Sunday Post I called for the great and good to back Scottish sportswomen who’ve stopped turning the other cheek to sexist attitudes.

Susie Wolff the 30-year-old racing driver from Oban had just received an apology from track legend Sir Stirling Moss after he said women lacked the mental strength for F1 racing.

Then Scottish female golf champ, Catriona Matthew, tackled golf’s governing body the Royal and Ancient in St Andrews when it refused to “bully” men-only clubs like Muirfield into admitting women members.

Catriona said; “It’s tough for the R&A to tell Muirfield what to do when they don’t have women members themselves. They should lead by example.”

Exactly. And that’s just what the First Minister has done.

Of course some folk will say Scotland’s powerful establishment don’t give an engraved golf putter about political endorsement and the Muirfield men won’t lose a wink of sleep over losing Lec.

Anyway Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing will appear, so it’s not a total government boycott.

Others suspect Alex is just courting the female vote for next year’s independence referendum after pledging a “transformational shift” in childcare in an independent Scotland at the SNP conference earlier this year.

So is he getting in touch with his feminine side? Or has he one eye on opinion polls which show a 22% gender gap in support for independence? Well it’s certainly true that if he could coax reluctant women into the Yes camp he might win the day. But the First Minister isn’t an “Alex come lately” to the golfing stooshie.

Four years ago he urged bosses at the R&A to follow tradition and give a membership to the new female principal of the University of St Andrews. They didn’t.

And whatever the First Minister’s political motives, there are other fish to fry.

How can Scotland press Commonwealth countries to field equal squads at the 2014 Glasgow Games when the 2013 Open is played at a Scottish club that won’t admit women?

Even Augusta National home of the US Masters admitted its first women members last month. Shouldn’t Scottish clubs join the 21st Century too?

Once human rights used to differ according to sex, race and sexuality. Women teachers couldn’t marry or take university degrees. Gay people couldn’t join the armed forces or declare their commitment publicly. Last week that changed when the Scottish Parliament backed gay marriage by an overwhelming majority.

I know change is going too fast for some people. But many dads have daughters. And much as chaps like time away from the gals (and believe me sometimes it’s mutual!) we must all find ways to do that without making girls feel like second class citizens.

So it’s good news to see a First Minister stand up for equality.

Muirfield is a private club and thus exempted from Sex Equality legislation. But those hard to reach powerful men must have daughters, wives, sisters and other much loved lasses round them too. If not for Alex Salmond then how about for them?