Don’t look at me like that – it’s not me saying it:
In a recent interview with the Hill Times, Dr. Carolyn Bennett, an otherwise pretty sensible MP, manages to offend a very dangerous constituency: stay-at-home mothers of young children.
I say dangerous, because as such a new mother (or technically, a work-part-time-from-home-into-the-night-while-my-nine-month-old-sleeps single mother) I can attest that the exhaustion involved can sometimes turn even the cheeriest parent into a crazed zombie. Dr. Bennett risks life and limb if she campaigns near any mom-and-tot playgroups in the next federal election. And in case she thinks people will forget her words, the family-friendly Tories will undoubtedly plaster them at every Rainbow Songs and Gymboree class in her riding of St. Paul’s.
Here is what Dr. Bennett said, while criticizing the record of the embattled Minister for the Status of Women, Helena “Air rage” Guergis:
“Women of Canada want to hear about early learning and child care; that is the key to their economic independence, to be able to get back to school, to get a real job, to be able to go to work.”
Ah yes. Because these little ones just raise themselves, right?
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Andrea adds: I disagree with the idea that Dr. Carolyn Bennett is “otherwise sensible.”
by 
There are so many reasons this is offensive to me as a current work part-time, stay at home mother of two, student to be, but the primary reason is oddly enough, choice. Women would like to be able to have children and not be punished by having to neglect some aspect of their life by doing so. By all means, open more daycares (in Nova Scotia there are up to 2 year waiting lists just to get my little ones into somewhere I think has good credentials), but ultimately relieve the financial strain on parents that limits their choices. I say parents, as I am one of the married few, who is only able to juggle all of these hats by having a supportive spouse.
PS. Motherhood IS my ‘real job’.
This is one of the most serious areas in which women face discrimination. Of what use are all of the feminist advances if we are to loose everything when we give birth? Of what use are all of those advances if they cost us our fertility and our right to bear children?
This pressure by employers is one of the greatest causes of abortion today, because if you were reasonable, you would get an abortion when your pregnancy inconveniences your employer.
True feminists would fight that attitude tooth and nail.