brennan
Argumentative Brit
Unlikely if his idea of an ideological middle ground is everyone believing in the patriarchy.
The first female chief of business lobby group the CBI has criticised business dinners as "not very inclusive" for women.
Carolyn Fairbairn said she had rarely stayed to the end of such corporate functions because she was bringing up her three children.
Along with sporting events, the black-tie dinners are seen as places to do business, she said.
But she has "never been a fan", and added that "a lot of women aren't".
"They'd rather go home to their families in the evening,"
I thought here was an appropriate place to post this. From the beeb:
This is the head of the CBI, and she seems to be under the impression that men actually WANT to work long into the evening, rather than doing it because they have to. Does she really think there is something different about men and women that women with children cannot do without seeing them on an evening when man can?
She seems to be making the argument on two fronts, neither of which I find particularly convincing. The first is that women generally have to look after children - but then promoting a sticking-plaster measure rather than using this as a chance to speak up for breaking the division between motherhood and careers seems like a fantastic waste. The second (perhaps implicit) is that women simply aren't good at late-night social events, which seems to be accepting rather than challenging the stereotype.
Doesn't the UK have equal maternity / paternity leave laws in place? If so, what the hell is she complaining about? This is something everybody has to deal with. Work it out with your partner.
If the UK doesn't have such laws, nevermind. But that is not the right way to complain about the problem.
That is definitely something both genders need to make a stink about, then! Making maternity & paternity leave equal for both genders would alleviate both the problems this woman is facing at her job, as well as allowing men to be more involved in the lives and upbringing of their children. As well as helping to put more gender roles to bed.
It wouldn't help in this situation though because, as she's talking about bringing up three children, presumably at least 2 of them are out of the maternity leave window anyway, unless she had triplets. Plus, it's in the evening so unless her partner works nights or is also out at another function then he presumably wouldn't need leave to be at home at that time anyway.
Assuming that the maternity/paternity laws are equal for both genders, this would then become a problem for her and her husband to work out. Work it out with your partner and there you go.
I mean, the laws aren't equal and they need to be, but..
Yeah but I mean in that scenario she would face the exact same issues if she were a man. wouldn't she? Or, what am I missing?
If women, by society, are expected to look after the children much more often than men, how is it difficult to understand that this would affect women more? It's not exactly an expectation applied equally between men and women.
If it's only the one relationship, then yes. If the majority - or even a large minority - of husbands are thinking like that, it's a societal problem by definition.
If women, by society, are expected to look after the children much more often than men, how is it difficult to understand that this would affect women more? It's not exactly an expectation applied equally between men and women.