Sir, - I would like to refer to a recent study whose overall results were published in the Sunday Times, (February 2nd). The apparent conclusion reached was that the children of mothers who worked outside the home achieved lower exam grades (GCSE standard) than those children whose mother remained at home. The implication was that the working mother is failing her children by not being in the home during their formative years. Running alongside this study is the push by the Government to "encourage" single Mothers to return to the workforce and help support themselves and their children thereby reducing the burden they place on social welfare.
My concern is the consistent lack of any attempt to consider the role and importance of men/fathers within the family. We live in an age which purports to support equality, yet fathers are constantly discriminated against in favour of the nurturing mother. This attitude belittles the role of both parents within the family. What of the grades of children: where the father remains at home? Are there no single fathers? Until society accepts that women can support their families as well as men, and men can nurture their, children as well as women, their can be no true equality in the family, in the workplace or in reality. - Yours etc,
The Lough,
Gould Street,
Cork