Women’s groups are again complaining about gender inequalities in the workplace. The latest quibble is that women in the public service are overlooked for promotion after childbirth. While their female colleagues are receiving promotions.
Written in the Daily Telegraph (19/8/08):
It is a biological fact women give birth to children. Also true is that the act of childbirth interrupts with one’s career. Women’s groups acknowledge this fact yet still draw on their feminist ideals to suggest that women should be able to have it all and that it is the fault of the workplace that this cannot occur.
So why is it that people are led to believe that they can have it all? That is, have the career with multiple promotions and have a happy family life. Something always has to give. We want it all, but unfortunately we can’t, it just doesn’t work. Sacrifices have to be made.
Of course this is what the feminists would hate the most, as women historically have been the main caregivers for children. This means that women have been the ones to sacrifice their career (if they had a career in the first place), while the man became the breadwinner. However, the same applies for the man. He will miss out on family life if he wants a big career as well.
The Daily Telegraph fails to ask these unpromoted women if they are happy with their situation. Perhaps they are happy as they are able to have that family life.
The big losers in all this kerfuffle about gender inequality are the kids. Children are a blessing, how about we start treating them as such. In the long run they become the losers from having a non existant parent because work was too important.
Written in the Daily Telegraph (19/8/08):
....65 per cent of women who had taken maternity leave in 2000-01 had not received a promotion in the six years after taking maternity leave. This compared with the 42 per cent of women without children who had not received a promotion over the same period.
It is a biological fact women give birth to children. Also true is that the act of childbirth interrupts with one’s career. Women’s groups acknowledge this fact yet still draw on their feminist ideals to suggest that women should be able to have it all and that it is the fault of the workplace that this cannot occur.
So why is it that people are led to believe that they can have it all? That is, have the career with multiple promotions and have a happy family life. Something always has to give. We want it all, but unfortunately we can’t, it just doesn’t work. Sacrifices have to be made.
Of course this is what the feminists would hate the most, as women historically have been the main caregivers for children. This means that women have been the ones to sacrifice their career (if they had a career in the first place), while the man became the breadwinner. However, the same applies for the man. He will miss out on family life if he wants a big career as well.
The Daily Telegraph fails to ask these unpromoted women if they are happy with their situation. Perhaps they are happy as they are able to have that family life.
The big losers in all this kerfuffle about gender inequality are the kids. Children are a blessing, how about we start treating them as such. In the long run they become the losers from having a non existant parent because work was too important.
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