to think that criticism of the school run is a form of sexism?

[Handay]

There seems to have long been a popular narrative that people taking their children to school by car are clogging up the roads with unnecessary journeys and delaying working commuters.

Most of these journeys are done by women.

It is a legal requirement for children to go to school, just as most people are contractually obliged to go to work. For many women, their obligation will fall across both aspects in that they will drop their children at school and then continue to work.

Why then are one set of people using a car in order to travel to somewhere they are obliged to be, criticised? There are, especially in cities, probably lots of car journeys that are "unnecessary" in the sense that the people making them could travel by alternative means. Why are women and children's journeys categorised as somehow less important than those of other road users and why are they repeatedly told that they should not be on the roads?

Just one recent example of this here on Jeremy Vine this week:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00035rk

My oldest dc started secondary school in 2011. I only drop my dcs in very special circumstances eg ds2 recently had equipment to carry for an art exam. I'm astonished at the increase in people who drop their dcs. It's made the area around the school congested and much less safe for kids. We actually have a park nearby where the school asks people to park. It's actually better because you'll escape the traffic but your little angel will have to walk a few minutes. Guess which option people pick?
We have two girls in our street in year 10. We live twenty minutes from the school. Their parents take it in turns to drive them and they have never walked to school. Both are overweight.

It is a legal requirement for children to go to school,

It absolutely isn’t.

I do agree that there's a certain type of misogyny that comes thinly veiled in environmentalism. I stopped reading the BTL comments on certain topics at The Guardian for that reason. All the issues facing the planet are due to selfish women being "breeders" (as though that's something women are capable of doing without male assistance) and "yummy mummies" doing the school run. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone needs to make more environmentally-friendly choices as a matter of urgency, but some people's green politics are only as deep as their hatred of women.