Letter: Women are not naturally better at child care
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Why does Angela Lambert (28 March) criticise the social forces that squeezed her into a child care role ('I was fired for being pregnant') at the same time as claiming that child care is something 'we (that's us girls) seem to do better'? If Ms Lambert's partner had been forced to leave work and look after the baby all day perhaps he too might have appeared strangely gifted with children when she returned home, frazzled at the end of the day, to ineptly handle the unfamiliar child on her knee.
The idea that feminism necessarily entails the denial of a child- bearing role is a nonsense. Feminism only rejects the twin assumptions that this role should be women's only concern, and concern only women.
Feminism doesn't undervalue the decision of some women to choose soiled nappies and 15 years vacuuming instead of a sparkling career. It just underlines the fact that, in the absence of any attempt by men, en masse, to share the child care role, it is a choice made from severely limited options.
Yours faithfully,
RACHEL GODFREY
London, SE25
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