See what I mean?
A survey for the Centre for Policy Studies suggested a third of mothers would not work if they had the choice…
Ms Odone said the “overwhelming majority of women do not want to commit full-time to a job”.
She calls this majority “real women” who want to lead a “full life”.
Ms Odone (who I suspect would not like being called that) also draws this helpful contrast:
Ms Odone’s report, What Women Want and How They Can Get It, calls for family-friendly policies, rather than those promoting women’s rights in the workplace.
Fascinatingly, despite the stunning claims about what it takes to be a real woman, the actual recommendations made are perfectly sensible***:
Her recommendations include:
Rather than “pumping billions into an unpopular childcare system”, the government should enable families to choose*
Weekly national insurance credits for carers of children and the disabled should be extended to include more people
Reform the tax and benefit system to stop penalising stay at home mothers**
Make it easier for businesses to employ part-time workers
*Actually, I’m not sure what this one means. Might not be so sensible after all.
**One wonders if it’s OK to penalise stay at home fathers.
***I don’t know what bizarre spirit of charity overcame me when I wrote that.
There’s actually a ton to be said about this article, but life is too short. (Thanks, HA!)
Feminist Philosophers 
I have the same caveate at the first recommendation… I mean, if there won’t be any child care, what exactly is there to choose? Would it be that the choice is that the partner with the highest income will work and the one with the worse paying job stays home? Sounds somehow familiar.
I have a better idea, let’s not pump billions in unpopular childcare, let’s make it efficient and good and in fact, popular.
I don’t know anyone who wants to commit full time to a job, when full time implies all the time, outside of the hours that your contract specified, no matter your personal life. As a matter of fact, I know quite some guys who would be very happy to work part time, if only it wasn’t going to be a dead certain dead end to the career and possibly the first one to let go in meagre times.
Coincidentally, we’re in meager times.
I am not sure whether I count as a woman at al, let alone a real one, actually: I have no children. Can’t imagine I would want to just stay at home with them all the time too, I can imagine it would drive me up the wall if I had to. Ah, ok, yep, am not a real woman, because real woman ought to be completely and utterly devoted to the offspring full time.
Yes, the mother/woman distinction is pretty much missing, isn’t it?
What tax system is penalizing stay at home mothers?!? Our tax system, at least the one in the US, was created for the male wage earner/stay at home mother family. These “traditional” couples receive a marriage bonus. The tax system penalizes equal-earner married couples, unmarried couples, single people (with and without kids), poor people, and a host of others but stay at home mothers (or fathers) aren’t included in that list.