Ruth Davidson quitting

[DustyLoveday]

I get that she has family and she wants to spend time with them.
However her quitting almost gives ammunition to those that believe that men are better to employ.
At the toughest point in her career she has stepped down. Yes her family need her but so does the country. Would a man necessarily do this? Or people without families? Should we only have MP’s that don’t have families?
I am just having a discussion before anyone starts getting angry.

I thought this too OP.

I felt like she was saying "I've just started to feel like this shit job isn't worth it". I totally see that, she's effectively been shat on by a dictator and that's not what she thought her job was.

but I wish she'd just said that, rather than mentioning the baby. I guess if having the baby means she's more conscious of the problem of being shat on, and why battle, that's why she said it, but it does feel like another case of "woman decides baby is more important than career". Whether or not a new father would be criticised, I don't know.

it does feel like we need decent politicians to stick around now so it's difficult all round. If they all run off and say "pointless and too hard" then we are officially in a dictatorship - though arguably that's not too different from where we are now....

I wish she'd given a different reason. Using family seemed like a cop-out that is harmful to women as well.

The euphemism "I'm spending more time with my family" has been used by male politicians for decades now, as a way of covering up a more internecine squabble or a forced hand.

Unfortunately like the OP said, women are wrongly judged unfairly to a different standard - it's a huge shame that we are losing someone of her political standing, and that these reasons are being used at the forefront of her statement.

Jo Swinson for example is someone who has brilliantly integrated family and work, that's not to say everyone must do this, am just applauding as an example,.

I thought that it was an excuse. She wasn't brave enough to come out and say that there was no point to her job because Westminster just tells their branch office what to do regardless. It's an excuse so that she doesn't burn her boats as far as her career is concerned. At one point the majority of the Holyrood parties were led by women but now we're back to men and a (sadly, as her miscarriage is obviously still extremely painful for her) childless woman.

"She wasn't brave enough to come out and say that there was no point to her job because Westminster just tells their branch office what to do regardless."

I felt she strongly implied this but shouldn't have said anything about family because that's not the issue.

She is remaining as an MP, which is a full time job! Being head of a party is an additional FT job.

She shouldn’t be expected to do things / meet higher standards than others just because she’s a successful, high profile gay woman and a mother.

Male politicians who work long hours rarely see their DC. Many get divorced.

Politics, like many other fields, is not family friendly. People with good health and no DC and “facilitated men” are better able to compete.

But what will ultimately help us is having family friendly employment, not just pretending to be like a man, so saying "this isn't working" for women with young kids (and men where this is an issue for them as well) is crucial in changing things, otherwise things stay the same and more women slink away not speaking out and the problem continues.

I totally support her right to choose her own career path, but I agree with you OP.

A lot of women find their priorities shift when they have a baby, and returning to work does tend to highlight that a lot. FWIW I do believe that she is stepping down because she simply doesn't want to compromise her family life while her DS is still so little, and she can see the looming political shitstorm with elections and possibly another indyref.

But she's obviously had to choose between a life all-consumed by work, and a more balanced life - she hasn't said she's going to do that job differently, in a way that makes it more balanced. And that obviously implies that jobs like that are simply not compatible with family life, which puts people off and you're left with the people who ARE prepared to do it who aren't necessarily the best...

Another case of the job being structured by men (often facilitated men) and women being unwilling or unable to fit into that structure. It's the structure that needs to change.

I do hope it's not the last we see of her

I find it amusing that she is using the same old reason (i.e. spending more time with her family) as disgraced former Tory ministers used when jumping ship before they were shoved overboard.
Davidson, as a former tv journalist, is a tough cookie. I don’t buy it.

Yes her family need her but so does the country. Would a man necessarily do this? Or people without families? Should we only have MP’s that don’t have families?

Men probably wouldn’t do this. And we should take this as a warning that the distribution of ‘house’ work is still far from equal.

It’s also a problem with the way parliament/government works. Being an MP is still a very parent-unfriendly job. While there is such vast inequality in child rearing between men and women, women, and mothers especially, will continue to be unrepresented in parliament.

She probably used being a new mum as a bit of an excuse to not publicly slate BJ. But what she wrote in her letter of resignation about dreading the campaign trail really does seem genuine. I certainly recognise that feeling (in my own line of work, I’m not an MP).

Boris is her issue. She backed Anyone but Boris and her strategy has backfired. She must be gutted.