(Untitled)

[saffronlie]

In which the author, a woman, meets our illustrious Prime Minister. Upon being told that the author is completing a PhD, Mr Rudd rolls his eyes and says that is the "excuse" women are using these days for why they're not having babies

Comments

[i_sanguinity]

A PhD -- lord, what a silly little excuse for not procreating. -_- Short of men actually having children (bearing them, birthing them, AND being primarily responsible for rearing them and all the collateral responsibilities therein) I really don't know that they will ever truly understand the cultural/societal predicament faced by women who want to have children without leaving their careers behind. It's an infuriating and frankly disgusting truth. It goes right in hand with the OMG SHOCK AND HORROR expressed by most people (male and female) toward any woman who declares that she doesn't want to have kids at all. Nobody would ever bat an eye at a man who said the same.

Here, women are quite lucky to receive 6 weeks' unpaid time off for the birth of a new baby. After that, unless you just so happen to luck out and have an employer who goes above and beyond the government's bare minimum requirement, it's either pay through the nose for full-time daycare, which, to enroll, you've probably had to be on a waitlist for 2+ years, or lose your job. Which is, you know, totally fair.