Christina Odone's article in the Telegraph today on 'what working women need' is....

[DarrellRivers]

nearly the most sensible thing that I have read in the press over the last year with regards to these so-called family friendly policies
see here

No-one interested?

I don't agree with her tbh. Not that I think that what has been done makes life better, or more family friendly, just that I still don't understand why those who work should subsidise those that choose not to - helping out the neighbours or not

I heard her on the radio the other morning getting totally annihilated by James Naughtie because there is sod all foundation for her argument. It's Tory propaganda. Even her bloody book's published by the Centre for Policy Studies.

I don't understand why those who want a career and enjoy their jobs cannot be supported without it being made into a us v's them argument.
I think most women just want a choice in the matter that's all and isn't an unreasonable request, maybe child benefit is triple the current rate to everyone working or not for the first 5 years and then nothing ?

I don't understand her point.

"Or maybe they should just sort out affordable housing so young families have more choices.

It is the mortgage payments that make us wage slaves."

I agree completely, I'm in this position right now.

However what can really be done about house prices?

As long as there are families where both parents are willing to work then they will, in effect, price the families with one working parent out of the market.

i agree with her. all the mums i know want to work part time, not full time.
very very few are willing to work 50+ hour weeks with a nanny in tow but that is the reality of "making it work" - esp if h'hold income is above any child tax credit.

However what can really be done about house prices?

I think what they will do is inflate their way out of the debt, that's banded around a lot as frankly the only way that we can "start again"
It does leave problems for savers, those on a fixed income and those who were planning to use their houses as a pension, but it seems the most painless way compared to making an entire generation bankrupt and demotivated to start again.

rubbish article, always hated Christina Odone, she's one of those women who hates other women, (was anti female clergy IIRC)

Am I the only one who wishes journalists and politicians could occasionally replace the term 'working mothers' with 'working parents'? Why is a mother who has her own career seen as selfish (how could she leave her poor kids in a faceless state-run nursery while she pursues intellectual stimuation and financial stability for herself and her family?) while a father who has a career is universally applauded as a responsible bread-winner doing the best for his family? What is the difference? do we really believe that men are so useless with childcare that it is still exclusively women's work?

The debate has to be about making it easier for parents (both) to combine work and family life - it's not just a women's issue.

"The debate has to be about making it easier for parents (both) to combine work and family life - it's not just a women's issue."

Well said!

The current system still makes it more likely that a woman rather than a man will stay at home with a child.

"I think what they will do is inflate their way out of the debt, that's banded around a lot as frankly the only way that we can "start again""

Well even if prices stagnate and inflation continues, thus reducing the actual price of the house, while there are families with one working parent will still be priced out of the market by families that have two working parents.

So "bottom" of the effective price slump will still be beyond the easy reach of one working parent families.

Agree with novicemama. I have no idea what gives Cristina Odone the authority to state what 'most women' want.

So Cristina's idea of what those needs are is better than Harriet's?

I don't really understand why she sets up this big dichotomy between those who want a 'full blown career' and those who just want to earn money. Surely what we all want is to find work that matches our skills and talents and that allows us combine parenthood with earning a living.

Plus, if you only need to work 16 hours a week to qualify for tax credits, that's hardly a model that assumes full time working is it? Rather shoots herself in the foot with that one...

Don't like CO and don't really get her point.

This is the same arguement she made in her wretched book - that was based on the 'research study' which was about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

I'm afraid DarrellRivers that she has her own axe to grind and it has bugger all to do with what women actually want.

'They earn enough to afford nannies and private nurseries, while the majority of women have to rely on the state for their childcare.' - says who? Where the hell are all these state run nurseries for working class women? What about childminders?

'The elite have bought into the macho value system and enjoy their membership of the big boys' club. They rate career above caring and believe that self-realisation comes only through professional success. They do not value what psychoanalyst Susie Orbach calls the "free emotional services" that ordinary women dispense daily: looking after children and elderly relatives, volunteering to read at the hospital, shopping for the octogenarian neighbour. Such social capital may be priceless, but for the elite who understand only price tags, it is irrelevant. '

This is just offensive bollocks - high achieving women are high achievers not heartless automatons.

'Mothers want policies that meet their needs ? not Harriet's idea of what those needs should be. '

I don't think we want Cristina's ideas either tbh.

webchat thread here from last autumn

Louise only works because otherwise she and her husband wouldn't be entitled to the childcare tax credit,

well if she (or he) didn't work, they wouldn't need it would they?

Should people get childcare element of WTC with an able bodied parent at home all the time?

Methinks Christina has got a bit confused on her tax credits. I assume she doesn't need to claim them then....

Can't stand her. How dare she talk for what women want?

Grrrr!