Thanks for input all, we agree and have sent this to the Indy
Letter to Editor
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown doesn't really understand the nature of Mumsnet and sites like it. Mumsnet is about pooling information and knowledge to make parents' lives easier. It isn't a top down institution that chooses what it's members should care about.
That said Ms Alibhai-Brown hasn't done her research very carefully either. Yes there are threads about the myriad of personal decisions women make every day - some of which are relatively trivial, many of which are very funny - but elsewhere on the site, thousands of women are debating the issues of the day, supporting friends through relationship crisis and campaigning for a fairer world.
As one Mumsnetter puts it "did she miss the Feminism section, the Politics section? The thousands of threads on domestic violence or the zillion fund-raising threads? The never-ending debates about the failure of the government to actually enforce the disability discrimination act? The chronic under-funding of social services? The ineptitude of the CSA? The chronic under-funding of healthcare?"
Mumsnet has recently backed campaigns by Refuge, Save the Children and End Violence against Women to name a few. In the last month Mumsnet has contributed to policy discussions on advertising and body image, child support services, libel reform and improving support for families with SEN children.
Not every woman has an Independent column at their disposal, and that is one reason why Mumsnet has grown in popularity, giving all parents (many of our members would rather chew their right arm of than describe themselves as middle class) a public place to air their views, support each other and to have a laugh, as well as to campaign on the issues they very much care about.
Yours, Justine Roberts, Co-Founder Mumsnet