"most teachers are women, if they go back to work who will look after their children?"

[StealthPolarBear]

Someone has seriously just asked gavin Williamson that

I think they also squeezed in a "long holiday" quip too

....finish at half past three?

Missed that one, should I write in and ask them to raise it :)

He said most primary school teachers are women. He's right.

He implied childcare has kanded disproportionally on them in recent weeks. He's right

How will women (who make up most primary school teachers) go back to work if there’s no childcare available?

OP please learn to use quotation marks correctly.

If you use them you must put the exact words spoken between them . To not do so is a lie.

I'm not aware of a transcript but thanks for the patronising comment.
He did not ask how teachers who are parents would manage with childcare. He pointed out many teachers are women, fine, but then asked who would look after their children. Making the sweeping assumptions that most women have children and childcare falls on their shoulders.

StealthPolarBear

Ah menthose people who can work effectively with dedication and unencumbered by responsibility

This person clearly thinks the responsibilty of childcare falls on women and that creates issues with work.

But you disagree.

He assumed that was the status quo and made no suggestion that that wasn't acceptable.
Similar to if he'd said "if the women o back to work, who will cook the men's lunches"
Do you really not see the issue here (with apologies in advance if my use of italics isn't up to scratch) or are you just looking to fight?

If someone said, 'most construction workers are men, who's going to look after the children if school are off?'

That would be interesting. And refreshing.

In fairness to Williamson his response talked about teachers who were parents.

But that is the staus quo.

And you see no issue with a harmful status quo being perpetuated live on TV?
You honestly don't see why this is an issue for feminist chat?
If not I no longer wish to discuss this with you really.

Whilst the comment he made annoys me intensely, unfortunately it resonates with me.

I'm a teacher.
I've worked bloody hard over the past couple of months either in school looking after keyworker/vulnerable children or via online live teaching/marking/assessing etc
It's been pretty relentless.
Absolutely no Easter break.

And I've been doing all this whilst somehow also looking after my own two young children and homeschooling them whilst my ex husband to be hasn't really covered that much extra at all.

Yes, he should pull his weight more but why is it my job to get him to do so? It's hard and will be actually far harder if I have to return to work as my children are both in the vulnerable category so I will not allow them to go into school yet.

Thanks for what you've been doing (and you a woman and everything!)
My children's teachers have been fantastic. Nothing has been too much trouble and I've seen no suggestion that their own children or elderly parents have impacted on how effectively they've worked.

The status quo does need changing but it's a reality that many many people live with.
I dislike the man intensely; I find the push to return to education disgusting when the science isn't there to back it up but I begrudgingly admit he has done kind of seriously screwed up point.

Sending me back as cannon fodder to a virus with no PPE isn't going to aid my childcare issues, though

@StealthPolarBear
Thank you! We are all trying so so hard to keep everything as normal as we can for our classes!

It's really hard, though! I've been teaching live audio lessons in my car/shed/garage to avoid my children adding to them...

My daughter gleely 'helped' me teach algebra the other day...

I hate to break it to you but these briefings are not supposed to a vehicle for feminism.

It is nothing at all like asking who will make men’s packed lunches. Nobody is going to call social services if you don’t bother to make a man a packed lunch. No packed lunch isn’t like leaving a two year old alone for eight hours.

Most primary school teachers are women and most essential unpaid caring work is done by women. It isn’t a sweeping assumption; it is the truth. It actively harms women to not take into account the reality of their lives.

We know very many women cannot rely on men to conduct essential tasks. More than that, a significant minority of men are a danger to their partners and/or children. Pretending equality exists is ridiculous at the best of times, never mind in the middle of a pandemic.

I'm a teacher, both OH and I are key workers. I'm currently 38 weeks' pregnant so on mat leave but it's a bloody good question had I still been at work! I have a 10 and 12 yo.

My OH is the boys' stepfather BTW and under normal circumstances I am (just slightly) the main earner.

So many people missing the point. Sly digs and 'breaking it to me' are not a substitute for engaging your brain.

Dear me. I think I'm done.

When you say people aren't engaging their brain what you actually mean is people aren't agreeing with you.

Is that so :) well as you have it all worked out, I think I'll leave this thread.many on here (and apparently on twitter) agree but you've chosen to address my grammar and needle me.

Saturday night then?

Wow, lots of people willfully misunderstanding completely missing the point.

Mr Williamson, in his haste to force teachers in to a dangerous situation, would do well to remember most of them only need to give half a terms notice.