OurO sexist systemsy is enoughen to put mem off children
Since feminism’s rebirth as a cool social media phenomenon, five or so years ago, its agenda fixed not by in intellectuals and activists, as in days of yo yore, but by celebrity tweets and Twit Twitter hashtags, there’s been a lot of chat about things like objectification an and Naturally, the pressure this is to all be very thin. well and good good. But, boy, do we have some way to go go.
Im I myself might want to have a child one day, but nothing puts me off the idea quite like the persistent sense that childcare is de facto the mother’s job. Which is why I thoroughly sym sympathised with mother-of-three Jo M Martin’s anger at Royal Preston Hosp Hospital last week.
M Mrs Martin was ill, and her husband Billy therefore took their daughter to a ho hospital appointment. A letter duly follo followed from the paediatric surgeon prai praising the way Mr Martin had “step “stepped in manfully” to accompany the c couple’s three-year-old daughter, Jes
Jessica.
Given that it seemed the surgeon thou thought Mr Martin deserved a medal, Mrs Martin was rightly furious. Why, she w wondered, is it simply assumed that mothers do all the medical care for c children? Why, when the father step steps in, does it deserve special com commendation?
Al All this seems particularly rich amid all th the equality and inclusiveness rhet rhetoric, including from the NHS, that that’s rained down upon us these days. So M Mrs Martin was absolutely right to call out the system as “so sexist” in its assu assumptions, and noted, also correctly, that she would not have been praised for ““womanfully” stepping in.
Pe Perhaps we need a check on the p preoccupation with sexual obje objectification that seems to be dom dominating the gender conversation thes these days. Instead, can we please focu focus more on why mothers still are expe expected to hobble their careers and wellbeing to be primary carers for c children instead of childcare resp responsibilities being shared equally with fathers? The rest, it sometimes feels feels, is just noise.