To think that it is ridiculous that in 2015 women are still being judged on whether or not they have reproduced

[zeezeek]

I am, of course, referring to the whole Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall debate that kicked off this week. It seems that whenever I start to think that, actually, we are getting somewhere with equality in this country, something like this happens.

It seems even worse that the person making the comments - basically that Yvette Cooper should be leader as she's a "working mother" and therefore has more understanding of like, everything issues affecting families than Liz Kendall - was another woman (Helen Goodman for those who have missed the bunfight).

AIBU to think that it doesn't matter at all whether a woman has no children, one child or 100 children when judging her ability to do a job. And we also need to get away from the so-called "women's issues" in politics as well - childcare is NOT just a woman's responsibility and we actually care about other things as well. No-one would dare say that about a man - even though most of our male politicians are keen to parade their children around like trophies in order to get the "women's vote".

FWIW I do actually support Liz Kendall - but, until I read that piece I didn't even know and still don't care whether she's married/unmarried, childless/a parent or any other thing about her private life. When things like this happens it just works to widen the gap between women with children and those who don't have them, shows politics and the media to be patronising and stuck in the 1950's - and makes me want to not so silently scream.

I think it was poor show for Yvette to essentially shame Liz for not doing what women are supposed to do eg procreate. It would not have been said of a man. It has no bearing on her ability to lead the labour party.

Not that I'll be voting for either of them.

However, being involved with children/family is not the same

Sorry. Small person interruption

Being involved with family etc is not the same as being a parent, it really isn't.

Just as caring for my ds with asd is not the same as raising my nt dd.

Don't confuse similarity with comparability.

However, no politician can truly understand through lived experience every member of a society. It is quite literally impossible. Therefore what Yvette did was use the patriarchy to shoot another women down which really isn't on.

I couldn't care less about Jeremy Corbyn 's marital history or how much younger his wife is.

I think the last unmarried, single PM we had was probably Ted Heath.

Sorry, unmarried, childless PM.

But I do know one or two people who absolutely do not understand children or the lives of parents in any way whatsoever!

I know several people like this - in fact I work with a lot of them. Not all of them are childless.

It is quite depressing that despite the fact that childless people have tried to explain that they are not entirely clueless about life - some parents still insist on patronising them. As I said, I had children late in life and I can honestly say that having them has not made me a more caring, maternal person. Before them, however, I was judged for my attitude towards child-rearing - now I am not and, frankly, my attitude has not changed improved.

What always hurt the most is that when, eg someone died, and I had to hear comments like "it's such a shame because they had children"....made me think that my life was somewhat less useful and worthy because I had undergone treatment for a life threatening disease that had (I thought) rendered me infertile.

I do, however, agree that what we need in this country is a bit more of the empathy and care that comes from caring for someone - anyone, child or adult.

Ted Heath was attacked for having no idea about family life and Tony Blair milked his to the last drop.

Childless colleagues also have to support childed colleagues in many offices - we are the ones who keep things going when there's a childcare emergency, a sick child or the office needs to be staffed over the Christmas holiday.

More fools we. If A has a childcare emergency but B has plans for the evening A has no business assuming that B's plans can be abandoned. Even more so if the work involves regular organised shifts or nights or weekends - when you are off duty, you are off duty. And if you did Christmas last year you should not even be asked to do it this year - whether your colleagues have children or not.

I meant what we need in politicians - not this country...