Manne needs to understand, it doesn’t matter whether you support childcare as part of your own work and family mix, other women and men will still need it. Until we get (Manne’s version of) utopia, which presumably is where everyone, including working class women, refugee women, everyone, will be able to stay at home being financially independent until they choose to go back to work. Until then, opposition to quality, community based childcare just makes it worse for others. Even then, some selfish berloody women like me might just think it’s quite a good idea ;-)

Helen’s last blog post..Holidays

Carry on.

Lauredhel’s last blog post..Love in the Time of Cholera: A Cantankerous Boxing Day Review

You are right that Motherhood is largely about childcare, and the reason I point to it is that she discusses amongst other things, the lack of policy support in Australia for parenting choices. Research that shows that where women have the option, most women have neither a work centred nor a home centred preference but would in ideal circmstances choose a mix of both over time. As you point out, most people are not in their ideal situation, and make choices based on the options available.

Manne discusses sweeden where there is a system of paid parenting – payments can be used to fund institutional childcare or as pay for the ‘work’ of a stay at home parent (either father or mother which is where i think the discussion ties in neatly with tigtogs discussion of possible parenting senarios that involve equal time). – the choice being with the parent as to where the money goes. Parenting policies in the workplace are also streets ahead. I think that this is an excellent model and opens up options for shared parenting models. That’s why I suggested it.

I am a bit taken aback by your assumptions about my motives (“nice try”) which imply that I am trying to somehow pull a swifty and reccomend something that is unsavory for feminists to read. It was reccomended to me by my uni supervisor who publishes extensively on feminism and capitalism. The book is neither conservative, anti-feminist nor attempting to discuss childcare in the context of individal choices and make people feel ‘guilty’. It is largely about policy and looks at the question in terms of larger political and structural contexts such as consumption driven capitalism.

Manne writes that everyone thought that she was nuts for tackling childcare that it is a taboo topic and I didn’t understand it at first, but I am starting to get a sense. I think it is an excellent read and even if you disagree with the research she discusses about the effects of long day care on child development it doesn’t mean that they are not relevant questions in the context of policy formation.

“Motherhood” is a guilt trip, and its usefulness to a feminist mother is questionable, but go ahead and read it if you want I suppose. Just take it with a very large pinch of salt that your kids will be forever ruined if you use childcare.

Helen’s last blog post..Calling the Hivemind

If it actually happened, though, I would be devastated, and I can imagine fighting to get better access, so I do have some sympathy for fathers like whatever.

(just by the by on the breastfeeding points, I went back to work and expressed at 6 and 3 months respectively, and it definitely reduced the total length of my breastfeeding in both cases rather than what would have happened with natural weaning and no expressing. I’m happy with my choices, but there were consequences)

Jennifer’s last blog post..Book Review: Strategy and the Fat Smoker

Thanks, all.

Y’all know I mostly only nitpick when I reckon the rest of the post was pretty fab, right?

Lauredhel’s last blog post..Battlestar Galactica: Feminist Or Not?

I’ll make a couple of quick edits after I’ve had some lunch. Busy busy day today.

(1) modern is also a problematic term in that in can be referring to modernism, or that specific period (modern furniture or modern design means something quite different to contemporary furniture or contemporary design, for example). I’d suggest using the term “contemporary world” rather than modern world, or perhaps the world today. Very very nitpicky indeed. Sorry. I don’t seem to be able to help myself.

(2) “although in peasant societies the mother still breast-feeds for on average another year” – which would make 18 months the average age of weaning? This seems young. The ABA website section on extended breastfeeding says “by about two years of age a third or more of the children in sub-Saharan Africa were still breastfeeding. In five out of seven Asian countries studied, 50% or more were still being breastfed at two years; in Bolivia, Peru and Guatemala 40% of children; and in Indonesia 63% of children are still breastfed at this age (Haggerty & Rutstein 1999).”

Seems like it could be a little older than 18 months, perhaps a little over two years on average if more than 50% are still being breastfed at two years? And of course biologically optimum age of weaning may be older – there’s certainly evidence in that direction.

But great post despite my nitpickiness.

Rebekka’s last blog post..And the Mitfords