A woman’s place is where she wants to be

Is there a demise in family values? Should all women stay at home and look after the children?

Should women be paid the same as men if they do the same job?

Can women have it all?

These questions and more appeared on the programme “The Trouble with Working Women,” the other day.

Some were answered by men, “yes women should stay at home, nesting and home building, that is what women are good at,” and some answered by women, “Home-building is one of the things that women are good at but it’s definitely not the only thing.”

I have to say I was amazed at some men’s draconian attitudes to women and their role in society and although yes, I am aware that the men who think women are equal and should be treated thus wouldn’t have made good TV, “If women weren’t allowed to work there would be no unemployment,” made me want to morph down the line and do something unspeakable to the male speaker.

Before I’d actually sat down to think about it, I thought we’d moved on, but it’s true the feminism of the 60s needs re-branding.

Back in the day, women weren’t fighting for equality they were fighting for basic human recognition. They weren’t attempting to take over the world, they just wanted a basic human right.

These days we’ve got our basic human right we now want basic equal rights.

The right to choose without guilt. As men have done for years.

I, as a woman have every right to choose between staying at home with my children or going back to work and when I do so I have the right to demand the same pay as my male counterparts.

I myself am self-employed, I work from job to job and have to find that work for myself, I also have a child and a home to run.

I have been lucky enough to have a child and at the same time keep a career going.

However sacrifices have been made.

My career is not soaring as it could have been and on most days the dusting doesn’t get done.

My problem is not that I don’t think I have it all, it’s that I demand the right to choose which part of it I want to have.