Is maternity leave sexist ?

[mozhe]

I think so.....surely it should be parental leave that is available to both parents,( or maybe even members of the wider family network, like grandparents ? ), and there should be financial incentives to encourage both parents to take it. What do other people think ? Instead of trying to make maternity leave longer should we not focus on supporting parents back into work sooner and providing better/cheaper/more appropriate childcare...

hear

But I think women do differ. I have a bit of very nice house and my island in that sort of category from which I get a lot of pleasure. Also some women who work full time may be have the large numbers of children on the same basis too - look at me - brilliant at work and massive family too. There have been a good few articles about it - city women with large families. Perhaps they're the female equivalent of the male expensive car which makes up for small penis or whatever. And you do get women who want to earn and buy an expensive car to show off their success and plenty of women who are happily single too (and they're not all lesbians). My sister always says if ever I mentino she is a single motehr by choice by IVF I always have to say it's not because she's a lesbian (she isn't) but because she wanted babies but not man.

I don't put houses and islands in the same category as cars, boats, planes etc which are consumer goods - houses and islands are investments. I think women, especially as they get older, often get pleasure from longer term things, where men are still keen on pretty instant gratification. So they need lots of money for toys... (got one of those coming for dinner tonight, he tried to sell his Ferrari to my partner a few months' back... ho hum...)

It's unconscous Anna, proximate causes seem more obvious than ultimate biological ones is all.

I like fast cars....ok so it's only a saab93..but love whizzing around in it and feeling fast and furious ! Whereas DH is happy to drive people carrier..

No I just don't like the sexism of some of the assumptions on this thread. It's the kind of thing which leads to... oh doesn't matter he couldn't keep his trousers up because men need instant gratification and can't help himself whereas women can etc etc. It can be dangerous to do generalisations but on the other hand clearly there are some male/female differences.

In fact some men in their 20s go in for ISAs in the UK wherease their female contemporaries are building a 50 pair shoe collection at £200 a pair. I genuinely know people like that - man as sensible investor and girl as silly shoe "investor"

mozhe - oh we're always having that debate in our household - my partner endlessly complains that I make him drive a van when he wants a toy....

I'm with your DH Anna......I have no interest in shoes btw !

No shoes for me either, I run around far too much for anything delicate and I'm far too tall in this country of midgets for anything with heels.

"oh doesn't matter he couldn't keep his trousers up because men need instant gratification and can't help himself whereas women can etc etc"

Sceince doesn't support any of these assumptions Xenia. You can't stop pseudoscientists (and pseudointellectuals) from trying however. The trick is to know the difference.