Sir, – Once again I am left nearly breathless by the liberal left-wing arrogance which permeates the writing of Una Mullally (“Women at the top should not forget sisters lower down, April 21st). Ms Mullally failed to put forward one convincing piece of evidence in favor of gender quotas. Instead she berates a true feminist icon, Sheryl Sandberg.
Writers like Ms Mullally and other similar, narrow-minded fulminators often use a completely delusional or invented piece of wishful thinking about the world as they see it and present this to the reader as a fact, often to back up the main point of their argument.
A classic example of this deception, or is it self-delusion, is when she writes that “The argument that if one woman made it, therefore every woman can, is like wondering why a homeless person in a lively employment market doesn’t just get a job.” Leaving aside for now the arrogant flick-off that Ms Mullally makes about successful hardworking women, it is the wording here that is most noxious.
The simile presents as fact that it must be wrong for anyone to wonder why a homeless person does not work when there are many jobs available. If Ms Mullally really thinks that to be true then she has reached the nadir of leftism, even for an Irish Times columnist. Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNY,
Arundel,
MonkstownValley
Co Dublin