It’s too much!

Regarding the controversy over John Halligan and the job interview: another example of the nanny State gone mad!

I’m a woman. A mother. A grandmother. I have worked in a few different big companies during my working career and practically every single week mothers were missing because their children were sick. They were perfectly fine themselves.

If I was running a business today I would want to surround myself with staff that I could be sure would turn up. Otherwise, how can I run my business effectively?

Margaret Gleeson, by email.

…There is a fierce backlash against men now.

Of course women don’t want to be groped and that should never happen. But it is coming to the point where a man will not be able to make a joke or say to a woman that she has a great figure or lovely hair without a backlash.

I can’t believe that a woman could get €7,500 because an interviewer asked her about her marital status.

The old patriarchal system of breadwinner and homemaker damaged men just as much as women.

Women seem to be carrying anger because they saw their mothers and grandmothers tied to the house seven days a week as unpaid housekeepers and carers. Women were economic dependents and no adult should have to depend on anyone.

Now women are determined to be independent, and rightly so. But we have to remember that men suffered too, because no man should have to be the total provider. It’s not fair and both the providing and the household drudgery should be shared.

Women cannot be too hard on men because men are not as emotionally resilient as women. Men don’t live as long as women. The male suicide rate is high. More young women than men are succeeding in school and college and getting higher results.

Men feel emasculated. There should be more counselling for men to help them accept the change from the old patriarchal system to a gender-equal society.

Maureen Lowndes, Geashill, Co. Offaly.