I heard someone on Woman's Hour http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qlvb today assert a statistic about female politicians in the UK. I have just tried to look it up but all I could find was a figure implying that between 1977 and 1986; 40% of women MPS had children. (Women and Politics Worldwide ed Barbara J Nelson).
Obviously this discussion was taking place against the background of the cabinet and shadow cabinet re shuffles last night and this morning. The suggestion seems to be that young women / women with children are under represented, and that those discussing issues that may affect them are inexperienced in the areas that could be siginificant, for example - childcare; although some of us would like to think that there is more to our lives than this. (They are, of course, wrong.)
How could we get more women into politics? Louise Bagshawe couldn't handle it, and although Cherie and Samantha, Sarah and Miriam seem to have coped, I imagine they had some help. I am interested in politics but the way parliament is run seems ludicrous. The hours worked are ridiculous, the London-centric focus impractical and the demands that I imagine are made on these people impossible.
Depressed, Anxious and Neurotic husband arrived back by 7 0 clock this evening. We were late eating dinner, so we still ate together although it then took 2 hours to get the children into bed and since the dishwasher is broken, I did not leave the kitchen until 10:30pm. Seven doesn't seem unreasonable although Dan's father still cannot understand why he doesn't pick up the phone at 3:35 since "He only works til 3 doesn't he?"
A few years ago I tried to finish my work at school before I left for home. They kicked you out at 6 but it was usually possible. I have single/childless/married to normal people friends who still do the same. Nowadays I leave with the school buses - more or less - in order to race back and collect my children from the childminder's before I have to pay another £15. After all I work a 0.75 timetable so I only have to work 75% of the evenings right? That is also possible. (Take note Mr Gove; if you're going to penalise me for racing out of the gate at 3:40 you can weigh the bag I carry home.)
In other words, there are other ways to work. It isn't about tweaking things to make it possible for young mums to "fit in" to the pre-existing system. There may be a better way to do it. Even the Daily Mail admits that "The poll also found that 55 per cent of the teachers quizzed said they regularly did 56 hours a week during term time - and even taking account of ‘holiday time’, the average amount of hours teachers do each week is 48.3."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159173/70-teachers-nighter-prepare-lessons-according-survey-teaching-magazine-concludes-hours-rest-us.html
And when you hear about the hours that those young city boys and girls work, moving straight from the office to the bar and back to the office to make high-pressured decisions, it does seem that something is wrong.
That does not support family time or mothers or children and explains why women are often faced with very difficult choices when it comes to employment. What I can't figure out is why men are not faced with those same choices.
As far as I can tell, it is no more acceptable for fathers to be working those hours either. We shouldn't be changing the system to be supporting women, we should be changing this system to support families. Women can't compete with their male counterparts working silly hours to suggest it is necessary to do so.
I don't think that as women, or feminists, we should be asking for better childcare provision for our jobs, we should be expecting anyone who has children to put the hours in at home.
Until our expectations of men improve, we can't expect equality of opportunity, or expect comprehensive representation in parliament.
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