Frewrious Spew

Feel need to respond to an opinion piece in Friday's Age by Joanna Murray-Smith. Entitled "Feminism's Booby Trap" it brings into the picture yet again the ongoing debate about mothers who work, and the effect it has on their children. Murray-Smith argues that mothers who work are detrimental to their children's wellbeing, if for the simple reason that they can spend less time with them. She is uses her family and her guilt about her own working life, a grand sample of one, to substantiate her claims. However, while it may be argued that children are better off being primarily cared for by a parent (not sure if this is even the case), it does not follow that this parent must necessarily be a woman. It is amazing that all the responsibility, all the guilt and shame surrounding childcare choices, still rest with the woman. Murray-Smith blames 'feminism' for allowing women these limited 'choices'. It is not the failure of feminisms themselves that has brought about women's current position where some (at least) feel they have to choose between being a 'good' mother and a career. It is this short sightedness, this blaming of the victim, which has led to feminism being held responsible for women's continued oppression. Wider society should look at why women are being forced into choices which they find limiting, where are the flexible working hours? The work-centred childcare? And, more importantly, the serious discussions as to the sharing of the domestic labour with the male partner who contributed to the conception of the child?
Women's choices are booby trapped, in that while these 'choices' claim to be definitive, really they only represent the choices that patriarchal society is willing to allow. Feminist action must be ongoing in changing attitudes where women feel they have such limited choices that any choice is a compromise, or as Murray-Smith puts it “a loss”.