Women of a certain age? They’re a major force: Gregg Wallace’s jibe shows grave ignorance, says ALEX BRUMMER

Gregg Wallace’s jibe at middle-class women of a certain age will not be forgotten, despite the MasterChef presenter’s efforts to row back.

Aside from the offence caused, it shows a profound ignorance by a celebratory TV host who drools over sweet desserts and over-seasoned lamb dishes, but doesn’t understand what is going on outside kitchen walls.

Among those women he dismisses so easily are some of the most powerful people in the world, who make an enormous contribution to well-being, prosperity and growth.

The rise and rise of women – yes many middle-class and of a certain age – in the command and control structure of the global economy is a terrific 21st-century phenomena.

Institutions once dominated by grey-haired, dark-suited male bureaucrats in wire spectacles are being made over by smart women.

But it should also be recognised that it is not wholly typical, as evidenced by a lowly number of just nine FTSE 100 women bosses.

Since July 5, we have all become familiar with bob-haired Rachel Reeves, who has acquired her middle-class status by dent of hard political graft. 

She may be too young to be part of Wallace’s construct of a ‘certain age’. But as Britain’s first female Chancellor in 700 years, as she reminded the nation in her debut Budget, Reeves is part of an impressive cohort that makes and will continue to make a growing contribution to our affluence.

They all will be capable of sourcing the best ingredients and affording the gourmet restaurants graced by MasterChef professionals.

Reeves is not alone among the women at the commanding heights of the British economy. Clare Lombardelli is deputy to Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey. 

It is her job to put together and sign off the monetary policy report used by rate-setters to determine the cost of your mortgage.

Lombardelli was parachuted into the Bank from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, where as chief economist she had a big say in the economic and fiscal policies governing every Western nation.

Not far from these shores in Frankfurt sits the imperious and elegant president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde. 

The silver-haired former French finance minister and one-time managing director of the International Monetary Fund is in charge of the borrowing costs and financial stability of the 20 nations that make up the eurozone.

These include the three dominant EU economies of Germany, France and Italy. She determines the interest rates for a group that stretches from Finland on the borders of Russia to Spain on the Atlantic coast.

If you think this stretches well beyond the chopping board and whisk, then consider the role of Bulgarian-born economist Kristalina Georgieva. 

As the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, she has a say over the economic, financial and (say it quietly) political affairs of 191 countries. These range from giants, such as the US and China, to Liechtenstein a new member.

The Fund is a think-tank, a forecasting organisation and a lender called into action when economies get into difficulty. It recently has been helping to repair the indebted and destabilised Sri Lankan economy with a £2.3billion bailout and is at work across most of Africa.

Georgieva affected our lives here in the UK two years ago when she used the IMF’s annual meetings to give former prime minister Liz Truss, another woman of a certain age, a dressing down over her unaudited tax-cutting Budget. 

This was among the factors that drove UK mortgage rates higher and caused mayhem on financial markets.

Just along the road from the IMF, downtown Washington is home to Janet Yellen, the US treasury secretary. The Brooklyn-born economist is in her last days in office following the election of Donald Trump.

Yellen, a hero to Reeves, is among the world’s most respected economic analysts. She previously served as chairman of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, before being relieved of her duties by the last Trump government.

She can be credited with delivering the fastest growth among the G7 rich nations in the Biden years. 

But the Democrats, like most Western governments, were punished at the polls for near-double digit inflation following the pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The change of the guard in Washington with Donald Trump taking the oath of office on January 20 will see his new chief of staff Susie Wiles as gatekeeper to the Oval Office. 

As significantly, Trump’s proposal to drive a coach and horses through globalisation, by imposing punishing tariffs on neighbours Canada and Mexico and China, will push the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation to centre stage.

Its director general is former Nigerian finance minister and formidable World Bank official Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. 

She has the task of policing global commerce and making sure Trump’s mercantilism doesn’t spin-out of control into a global trade war, with tit-for-tat restrictions, which could condemn the world economy to stagnation or even a 1930s-style recession.

There will be those unreformed voices who see the women dominating economic policy, which is so important to all our standards of living, as tokenism. That’s what we have come to expect of Wallace and his ilk.

Yet women tend to be less driven by ego and machismo than their male counterparts and more willing to listen, learn and negotiate.

Several of the women of a certain age making it to the top of decision-making in global economics hail from humble beginnings, and have climbed the heights by dint of intellect, ambition, and judgment. We should wish them well. Our standards of living depend on it.