Insidious belief

The news that the PM will be having a baby while in office has exposed the persistence of an insidious belief among some readers that childcare is naturally the primary responsibility of women. This is reflected in the letter by Trish Heikoop, “This baby will have its father fulltime but if its mother is giving the job of PM 100 per cent the child will seldom see her” — a concern that would never have been expressed had the PM been a man.

The belief that childcare is the domain of women is sustained by its claim to be rooted in the biological fact that women bear children. On to this fact have been grafted assertions that are not biological — that women are naturally “better” at caring for babies, that there is a special, primal bond between mother and baby that must be nurtured after birth, that babies will suffer developmentally without the undivided attention of their mothers.

The subscribers of this belief therefore despair at the prospects of a child which will only have its father fulltime. Of course women may have careers, they say, but on the condition that these are subordinated to childcare. Those who try to do both are seeking to “have it all”, a goal that has never been ascribed to a man.

This belief operates to keep women with children out of the public sphere, and especially positions of leadership and power. It should be called out at every possible opportunity.

Zoe Brentnall, New Zealander in London.