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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to wonder if

47 replies

egopostulosomnus · 31/10/2010 20:23

now i am not even hinting that this ought to happen, but i was having one of those 6th feed of the night mad musings and was wondering

IF all mothers had to give up working, would there then be enough jobs to go around so that there would be no out of work families, and as a result of there being no dual income families, the country's finances would realign themselves to something more stable??

like i say, not saying it should happen, just wondering what would happen if....

OP posts:

MissBeehiving · 31/10/2010 21:43

I think we'll just have to wait and see Georgiemama - you could be right or alternatively the idea could be being floated to see how it is received.

Georgimama · 31/10/2010 21:48

Also, even if someone invented a Taliban style distopia overnight and handed women's jobs to unemployed men - are they trained to be nurses? teachers? lawyers? dentists? doctors? engineers?

Women do a lot of work that men don't want to do - whether we like this or not. I am a high street solicitor. Below partner level we have one male solicitor and twelve women. This isn't positive discrimination at work - young men don't want to work in high street practices. Get rid of us and there won't be twelve male lawyers suddenly gagging for our jobs - just a 130 year old law firm that folds overnight.

rempy · 31/10/2010 21:50

Mmmmm, my training has cost an estimated £500,000. Not a great investment by the country if I was assigned coffee mornings rather than operating lists......

And I would go mental. So the NHS would doubly lose out.

And there aren't enough adequately trained men to take over. It would take 13 years to "prime" the system to acheive this patriarchal nirvana. So the service provided would be extremely limited. So you would lose out.

An interesting muse, but totally crackpot.

DuelingFanjo · 31/10/2010 21:51

"and the fact that as of 2013 two marginally under higher rate tax payers will keep child benefit whereas a household in which one (let's presume) man earns higher rate income but woman doesn't earn at all will lose it, suggests you are wrong."

I think it just suggests that they have an idiot or two working for them

They didn't create this child benefit situation deliberately or for the benefit of those who earn just under £44,000.

Original poster

egopostulosomnus · 31/10/2010 21:54

isnt part of our society's problems just part of what you were saying there though georgimama--about people not wanting to do certain jobs. i would have hoped that people would be a little more pragmatic about it all and think that a job is a job and in times of need any job would do.

OP posts:

Georgimama · 31/10/2010 21:54

Well you're the one claiming their policies are aimed at getting women out of work and into the home, please give an example of an actual government (that's a coalition government, by the way) policy which aims to achieve this.

Georgimama · 31/10/2010 21:56

You would think people would be more pragmatic than that, and I am and always have been. I've never been unemployed for one day and that's because I've taken work, any work, and if I hated it I have carried on doing it anyway until I found something better. I thought everyone was like that but I know 15 years into my working life that they aren't. Lots of people are self aggrandising and/or lazy.

onepieceoflollipop · 31/10/2010 22:01

"in times of need any job would do"

Trouble is, lets say my db who is currently unemployed decided to do my job, or indeed rempy or Georgimama's job.

To do my job, he would have to train for 3 years then to be at my level I would say 2-3 years experience, minimum.

(I am a nurse, don't even have a degree so am probably one of the least qualified of those of us on the thread)

I imagine, for example, that rempy's patients may hesitate ever so slightly on signing their consent forms if someone explained that a very nice man was going to take over, despite having only worked in a factory before and never having been in an operating theatre.

Meanwhile rempy could go down the park with her dcs.

Georgimama · 31/10/2010 22:04

I also agree with you onepiece, which may seem contradictory with my previous post. I have done unskilled jobs when there was nothing else going - but there are fewer and fewer such jobs in this country.

Original poster

egopostulosomnus · 31/10/2010 22:07

georgimama was saying about male solicitors specifically though and i was under the impression that currently lots of professional people are unemployed, obviously some jobs would need specific and lengthy (and costly) training, but there would be plenty of predominantly female jobs which require much less training

OP posts:

booooooooooyhoo · 31/10/2010 22:08

erm, of course there would still be dual income families. what about couples with no kids? also. how would you work it for gay couples that have children? if it were two men would they still both be allowed to work? if it were two women would neither be allowed to work?

onepieceoflollipop · 31/10/2010 22:08

I think the OP was only "thinking out loud" but this thread has irritated me which probably makes me very unreasonable.

Just seems quite mysogynistic (sp?) tbh.

It just seems to be a load of crap nonsense about how much better it would be if all the women got back in their place. Oh and then of course all the poor men that we are preventing from working in paid employment would miraculously walk into our previous jobs.

Sorry, but that is how I feel.

onepieceoflollipop · 31/10/2010 22:10

"predominantly female jobs"

Ok, so the women all leave and suddenly them men think "ooh, I always wanted to be a nurse/cleaner/carer"

ZacharyQuack · 31/10/2010 22:11

So what about the childless women? How good would their career prospects be if employers were expecting them to bugger off into maternal homelife at some point?

What about the childless women who intended to remain childless (either by choice or circumstance)? Would they need some sort of medical certificate/legal declaration before they would be considered for the well-paid jobs? What if they then got pregnant? Could they be sued?

If the problem is that there aren't enough jobs for the workers, why pick on mothers? Why not redheads or short people or people with funny accents or fat people or fathers?

ZacharyQuack · 31/10/2010 22:12

Wish we had a OTW flag for Xenia....

Georgimama · 31/10/2010 22:13

Law is a predominantly female job.

Why pick on women? Obvious answer really - misogyny.

onepieceoflollipop · 31/10/2010 22:15

Could we possibly transfer this thread to the feminism topic. It would make for an interesting discussion I think.

I wondered if I was being ott saying misogynistic Georgimam but I note that you feel the same.

TheCrackFox · 31/10/2010 22:16

I think you are right and furthermore, men should give up work too. It would be interesting to watch the entire capitalist system implode and after the rioting has subsided we could barter for things we need.

Original poster

egopostulosomnus · 31/10/2010 22:22

no one is suggesting it could or should happen. just what if. i miss my job. but equally i know plenty of women who are desparate for an excuse to give up work!

OP posts:

HappyMummyOfOne · 31/10/2010 22:30

There are very few men in childcare and primary schools due to fear of being accused of something - how do you propose to overcome that with your theory?

I also dont share the viewpoint that a woman should stay home and be provided for just because of her sex.

mamatomany · 31/10/2010 22:34

Women staying at home cost the economy a fortune in lost revenue and NI payments. Ideally you want everyone who may take out the pot in the form of health care, pension whatever to be contributing more than they put in.
Since i had a million pound heart operation at the age of 9 "they" probably feel i have a long way to go with my repayments.

BagofHolly · 31/10/2010 22:35

I predict that this thread will be referenced in a study looking at the effects of sleep deprivation. Along with musings about monkey-tennis, etc.

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