‘Maternity rights hit women’s jobs’ claim
equality boss sparks controversy
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THE chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission sparked controversy yesterday when she questioned whether women’s careers were being hit because maternity rights could be “entrenching” stereotypes about mothers doing the caring while men worked.
Nicola Brewer said the present rights appeared to support the idea that fathers were “optional seasoning” in children’s lives, while mothers were the main carers.
She said the division between maternity and paternity leave could be entrenching the view that women were the ones who had to pay the career price of motherhood. Ms Brewer argued that not allowing fathers good rights presented an “inconvenient truth”, entrenching the assumption that women will look after children while fathers work.
The Conservative Party, and women’s campaign group the Fawcett Society supported her comments, but union officials accused her of “missing the point.”
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “The idea that extending family-friendly rights would somehow hurt women’s job prospects is a myth commonly peddled by employers who don’t want to employ women of child-bearing age or give male staff time off to spend with their children.”
