Why can’t dads work while mum stays at home?

RECORDS show that over the last 24 years the number of women staying at home to bring up their children has fallen by a million, despite polls regularly showing that many would prefer not to work.

So why, if they really want to raise their children themselves, do they instead work while paying other people to do so?

Those financially hard-pressed were hardly helped by the fiscal policies of Cameron and Osborne, who gave the impression they wouldn’t be satisfied until every woman was forced into the workplace. For others the social pressures are enormous. A former secretary, who left me for full-time motherhood, said she was always justifying her decision to friends who somehow believe that the measure of a woman is economic rather than maternal activity.

One need look no further than the reaction to actor Tom Chambers, who sparked a row last week when he had the temerity to suggest that the pay of men whose wives were full-time mums had to stretch further than the pay of those who were not the sole wage-earners. That is so obvious a truth it barely needs stating but it provoked uproar followed by the usual apology.

Why is it so wrong for a mother to be a mother? Why is bringing up tomorrow’s citizens regarded as second class work? Why should a husband not work to keep the whole family?

Two million women still buck the trend and many more would like to. In the interests of equality the full time mother should be lauded not derided. However I doubt if it is a subject which enthuses Justine Greening very much, pre-occupied as our Equalities Minister is with letting anybody choose a gender without medical or legal process.

A woman forced out to work is no less a victim of her age than those in a bygone era who were forced to stay at home. We haven’t come very far, have we sisters?